The Origin of St. Valentine's Day

There are many stories about who the real St. Valentine was, but the most popular one is that he was a priest in Rome during the third century. At that time, Rome was ruled by an emperor named Claudius.

Claudius wanted men to volunteer to join his army, but men did not want to fight in wars. They wanted to stay with their wives and families, which angered Claudius. So he thought that if men were not married, they would join his army and he banned all marriages! Valentine did not like this new law, and decided to help anybody who wanted to get married. So after the new law was made, Valentine continued to marry couples, usually in a small candelit room while the couple and Valentine whispered the words of the ceremony. But one night during a ceremony, Valentine was caught, thrown in jail and told that his punishment was death.

While he was in jail, people came to see him. They threw flowers and notes up to his window to let him know that they still believed in love and marriage. One of the people who visited Valentine was the daughter of the prison guard. Her father allowed her to visit him in the cell and they talked for hours. On the day Valentine was to die, he left the girl a note thanking her for her friendship and signed it, "Love from your Valentine." This was on February 14, 269 A.D.

From that day on, every year on February 14th, people show that they too believe in love by sending cards to each other.

"I LOVE YOU" around the world

Albanian - Te dua!

Arabic - Ohiboke (m to f) Nohiboka (f to m)

Bengali - Ami tomake bahlobashi!

Bosnian - Volim te!

Croatian - Volim te!

Czech - Miluji te!

Danish - Jeg elsker dig!

Dutch- Ik hou van je! Filipino - Iniibig kita!

Finnish - (Mä) rakastan sua!

French - Je t'aime! German - Ich liebe dich! Greek - S'ayapo!

Hawaiian - Aloha wau ia 'oe!

Hebrew - Anee ohev otakh (m to f), Anee ohevet otkha (f to m)

Hindi - Mai tumase pyar karata hun (m to f), Mai tumase pyar karati hun (f to m)

Hungarian - Szeretlek!

Icelandic - Eg elska thig!

Japanese - Kimi o ai shiteru!

Korean - Dangsinul saranghee yo!

Malaysian - Saya cintamu!

Norwegian - Jeg elsker deg!

Polish - Kocham ciebie!

Portuguese - Eu te amo!

Romanian - Te iubesc!

Russian - Ya tyebya lyublyu!

Spanish - Te amo!

Swedish - Jag älskar dig!

Turkish - Seni seviyorum!

Ukrainian - Ya tebe kokhayu!

Vietnamese - Anh yeu em (m to f), Em yeu an (f to m)

Yiddish - Kh'hob dikh lib!

Zulu - Ngiyakuthanda!