Report by Duncan Williams for Pulman's Weekly News
Valentine’s Day. The one day of the year when supermarkets overflow with heart-shaped chocolates, florists triple their prices, and social media becomes an unbearable sea of couples grinning over candlelit dinners. If you're single, it can feel a bit like being the only person not invited to a very loud, very public party.
Of course, it wasn’t always this way. Valentine’s Day traces its origins back to the third century, when St Valentine - who may or may not have been more than one person - allegedly defied Emperor Claudius II by secretly marrying couples. His reward? Imprisonment and execution, naturally. Hardly the romantic legacy you’d expect from a day now defined by pink balloons, sentimental cards, and stuffed bears clutching "I Wuv You" signs. Yet, over centuries, the tradition evolved, fuelled by poets like Chaucer, the Victorians’ love of romance, and, more recently, the relentless machinery of capitalism.
So, where does that …
