Saturday, February 14, 2009

Happy Valentine's Day

Valentine Traditions
(found online, I added my own comments)
Hundreds of years ago in England, many children dressed up as adults on Valentine's Day. They went singing from home to home. One verse they sang was:
Good morning to you, valentine;Curl your locks as I do mine ---Two before and three behind.Good morning to you, valentine.

In Wales wooden love spoons were carved and given as gifts on February 14th. Hearts, keys and keyholes were favourite decorations on the spoons. The decoration meant, "You unlock my heart!" (How sweet!)

In the Middle Ages, young men and women drew names from a bowl to see who their valentines would be. They would wear these names on their sleeves for one week. To wear your heart on your sleeve now means that it is easy for other people to know how you are feeling.

In some countries, a young woman may receive a gift of clothing from a young man. If she keeps the gift, it means she will marry him.

Some people used to believe that if a woman saw a robin flying overhead on Valentine's Day, it meant she would marry a sailor. If she saw a sparrow, she would marry a poor man and be very happy. If she saw a goldfinch, she would marry a millionaire. (what if you saw a crow?!?!)

A love seat is a wide chair. It was first made to seat one woman and her wide dress. Later, the love seat or courting seat had two sections, often in an S-shape. In this way, a couple could sit together -- but not too closely!

Think of five or six names of boys or girls you might marry, As you twist the stem of an apple, recite the names until the stem comes off. You will marry the person whose name you were saying when the stem fell off.

Pick a dandelion that has gone to seed. Take a deep breath and blow the seeds into the wind. Count the seeds that remain on the stem. That is the number of children you will have.

If you cut an apple in half and count how many seeds are inside, you will also know how many children you will have. ( I did this yesterday and there were at least 6. No way this one is true!)

2 comments:

Claire said...

How fun! I didn't know many of those, but we did do the apple stem thing in Jr high & HS. Obviously, it didn't work for me!

In response to your comments on my blog-yes, we've been 'underground' lately, attempting to not contaminate our friends and family with our diseases. And I remembered all the questions because I wrote them all down as they occurred. It started in the AM, because I thought I would like to document some of the funny questions I get all day. Then I realized it was funny. I omitted a lot, some of which I was afraid would offend someone!

Sweet Simplicity said...

Haha! I'm laughing at the apple seeds thing!

 
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