The alternative Valentine

Tomorrow is St Valentine's Day when, if so inclined, one sends a card to their loved one to profess their undying love.  At school, kids may send the quintessential anonymous card to a girl or boy that they fancy.  My hussy and I exchange Valentine cards and mine is waiting here on the shelf in a bright red envelope.  Hers is sitting on her shelf awaiting the same fate tomorrow morning.  For personal reasons, we won't be together tomorrow though she will be travelling across the country on Monday to stay with me next week.

What I wanted to share was an alternative Valentine known here in my particular county as "Jack".  He is also known as "Old Father Valentine" or "Old Mother Valentine".  In Victorian times, the county's lovers went to great lengths to anonymously swap parcels on February 13. Back then more money was often spent on valentine’s gifts than Christmas presents.  It was customary to send a gift to your sweetheart. In other parts of Britain, a solitary love letter or card would do.  Across the county, Valentine’s Eve was as eagerly anticipated as Christmas Eve and it was very good humoured. People would fill a bag with love tokens to give away. They would bump into friends in the street and share jokes along the way. When they arrived at the home of their lover, they would knock on the door, leave a present and run off before they were seen.  Hopefully, the valentine would be out and you would return home to find your own doorstep covered with parcels.

Jack Valentine can metamorphose into Old Father Valentine, or Old Mother Valentine, knocking on the door and leaving presents on the step to be collected by the expectant child. In a cruel variation on the theme, another and somewhat darker character appears at times, Snatch Valentine.  There is a knock at the door; child opens door; a package sits on the step; child reaches for it and the string attached to it is yanked hard.  The present disappears behind whatever cover is to hand. This continues several times, and the child, who has been warned of dire consequences if he or she should follow the present, becomes more and more agitated, until finally the string is not pulled, and the present sits safely in the youngster's hands.

In the 1800s, children would set out before dawn to sing rhymes in exchange for sweets, cakes and pennies. One favourite local verse was:
Good morrow, Valentine,
God bless the baker,
You'll be the giver,
And I'll be the taker.
Once it was light, their requests could be turned down because they were said to be sunburnt.

So however you choose to celebrate St Valentine's Day, I wish you a day to remember.  And maybe you might just get a knock at the door...