Valentine's day.

A bit of a mysterious festival, this one. For starters, there's no general agreement as to who the Valentine was whom the day is meant to be commemorating. It seems that Valentine was a popular name for early Christian martyrs, and there are several candidates. But in any event, none of them has any connection with courtship and romance. Just where this association comes from is another mystery. Chaucer mentions it in a poem in the 14th century as being the day when birds traditionally choose their mates, so it would seem it was a well established concept back then. For me, Valentine's day is the first marker of the year - not the beginning of Spring by any means, but I see it as the end of the dark days of Winter, when the mornings are starting to get light at a respectable hour, and the threat of any prolonged spell of bad weather has more or less gone. So it is a day to be welcomed!