ITALY. ROME. YEAR 269.

The 13th February of 269 is a bad day for Valentinus. He is in prison in Rome. And you only leave a prison in Rome for one reason: To get executed. Especially if you are Christian. A banned religion in the Roman Empire.

But how did he end up there? Well, performing weddings for Roman soldiers is illegal. Valentinus was aware of that fact. But it did not prevent him from doing so. After all he is a man of love, romance and Christianity! Right now, he is also sitting in his own excrements.

The smell in the prison cell is truly barbaric and the light is quite dim. But Valentinus has a piece of paper in his hand. It was given to him by his jailer, Asterius.

Asterius works in the prison since 26 years. A timespan making him immune to nauseating stenches and compassion towards humans.
Well, not completely. Not towards his beautiful daughter. What makes him so compassionate about her is her only flaw: Her blindness. Her world was as dark as the prison in which Asterius is working.

At least until this Christian guy Valentinus got thrown in his prison. His daughter who sometimes accompanied him to his work instantly liked the guys voice. So she started talking and hanging out with Valentius. Eventually even praying together with him!

But Asterius did not mind. At least his daughter had some joy in her dark life. And the the incredible happened: After one of the prayer sessions his daughter was able to see for the first time in her life!

Asterius was incredible thankful but could not help Valentinus to get out of prison. All he could do was giving him a piece of paper to write a good-bye letter to his daughter. A little emotional souvenir.

And there Valentius is now, finishing the last sentence for the jailers daughter. It is a rather long letter and he is unsure how to finish it. He wants to close it with something emotional but:
He can't think of anything. Writing never was his strength.

He sighs and signs the letter with:

“Your Valentine.”

ENGLAND. KENT. YEAR 1328.

The famous English author Geoffrey Chaucer is sitting at his desk and does not know what to write.
He is under pressure. The king of England is about to have the first anniversary of his engagement to the queen.
And Geoffrey Chaucer wants to write a poem for that occasion.
He needs something original. After all he is a celebrity.

Then he remembers: It is the 14th of February. He looks into his encyclopedia of saints and searches for today’s date.
He finds a small entry. A guy called Valentinus got executed on that date. The church later made a saint out of him. St. Valentine.

Geoffrey Chaucer scratches his forehead. That's not very helpful. St. Valentine is a saint, but he never had a special reputation for anything. Okay, he healed that blind girl but every second saint does stuff like that, not to speak of Jesus himself.

His gaze wanders to the window and stops at the branch of the big tree in his garden. Geoffrey Chaucer sees two birds landing on the branch. The male starts to sing and ruffle his feathers, followed by a more intimate act with his female companion.

It makes “click” in Geoffrey Chaucer's head and he rushes towards his desk. Grabbing the feather, the following verses get sprawled on the paper:

“For this was on seynt Volantynys day
Whan euery bryd comyth there to chese his make.”

["For this was on St. Valentine's Day, when every bird cometh there to choose his mate."]

JAPAN. TOKYO. YEAR 2014.

Naomi is under pressure. She has to buy 32 boxes of chocolate for her co-workers and the shops are closing in 15 minutes.

The reason is the meaning assigned to tomorrow:

Valentines Day!

For women in Japan this means to buy chocolate for all of their co-workers and to generate half of the annual income of the Japanese chocolate industry.

But how come? Naomi knows it. She googled the details of Valentine's Day. Because she wanted to now why in the world she had to buy huge amounts of sweets every year.

The tradition started in England. One of their famous writers, Geoffrey Chaucer, gave the day it's romantic connotation in 1382.

Later in 1797 some guy published a book called "The Young Man's Valentine Writer". A collection of phrases for teenagers without enough fantasy to come up with their own romantic vows.

From there on it became easier and easier to send non-personal, yet personal messages to people on Valentine's Day. With the help of the industrialisation a whole industry arose. Producing standardised greeting cards and trying to convince people of the necessity of expressing their love.

This whole business model soon spread from the United Kingdom to the United States. As these two countries are amongst the dominating powers of the last two centuries it is no wonder that Valentine's Day conquered the whole world, accompanied by an army of greeting cards.

Nowadays it is celebrated almost everywhere. Including Japan.

The Japanese industry began promoting Valentine's Day in the 1950's. Due to an translation error the women had to give the gifts to the men. But who cares? It's about love. Isn't it?

Meanwhile, Naomi has reached the store. She pushes her way through he masses and is able to grab as much chocolate as she needs. But no greeting cards. That's something the Japanese do not do. Chocolate is enough.

She pays and gets on the overcrowded evening train back to her suburb. In her head she curses the stupid Italian who had to cure random blind girls. And she curses Geoffrey Chaucer and his fatal poem.

As she gets off and is able to breathe freely without the squeezing masses, her thoughts become a bit milder. The gesture of Valentine's Day might be superficial, but the meaning is somewhat heart-warming.

And the chocolate, jewellery and greeting card industry would have found another way to deprive people off their money anyway.

So she heads home, eats dinner and goes to bed. Tomorrow might be Valentine's Day. But she still has to work. While giving out chocolate.