A special day marked with carved spoons, bird sightings, chocolates and flowers...

I HOPE that you have remembered that tomorrow is Valentine’s Day. If not this may be the moment to put down this paper and go and do something to ensure the special person in your life will know they have not been forgotten. As my wife and I often observe, this day may be overcommercialised and highly sentimental but who in a relationship will ever have the courage (or the foolishness) to ignore it.

The origins of this festival are, like so much, a mixture of Christian and pagan traditions. For the Romans it was a day to celebrate fertility: both agricultural and human. The church linked the day with Saint Valentine 1500 years ago. Tradition says he was imprisoned and beheaded for refusing to renounce his faith. The night before his execution he left a note for his jailer’s daughter (whom he loved) signed, “From your Valentine”. The rest, as they say, is history and a commercial gold-mine.

There are many traditions associated with the day. The Welsh would carve love spoons and give them to those they loved. Others say that if a girl sees a sparrow on Valentine’s Day she will marry a poor man but be happy. However, the bird to look out for is a goldfinch. Tradition says that if you see one of these you will marry a millionaire. No promise of happiness though!

Whatever the traditions and however we feel about the day it can surely be a good time to recall the Biblical injunction to “Love One Another”. John, one of the original disciples, wrote several letters to the church in which the dominating theme was this same command. Legend says that when asked for a last message from his death bed he simply said, “Love one another”.

How we express love in our daily lives is something I regularly struggle to discover. Another early disciple, James, wrote that faith not expressed in action is useless. So, let us give cards and chocolates but let us also seek to find ways in which love can be shared practically with everyone – whoever they are.