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October, 19.
ral confusion of names, Valentine might have become estabUshed as the patron saint of sweetheairts.
Another theory comes from the Roman feast of Lupercaha occurring in February in honor of Pan and Juno, who spent a lot of time in amorous pursuits on Mount Olympus. Names of young women were drawn from a box and each young man became the swain of the girl whose name he had hazarded. The clergy tried to stop the pagan practice of raffling off boys and girls by giving it a religious aspect and substituting the names of saints. The youth was to emulate for the next year the saint whose name he had drawn. The substitution was never popular, and the girls and boys emerged triumphant, playing the game by their own rules.
Bailey's, in 1721 the first of the great English dictionaries, gives another theory. It suggests that about
this time of year, birds choose thi i mates, and probably thence came t p custom of choosing valentines or s{ ' cial loving friends on a day midwi i through the month.
Chaucer, in his Parliament Foules, makes this reference: For this was Seynt Valentine s Di
When every foul cometh ther to choose his mate.
English literature following Chj| cer contains frequent references the day. In the Paston letters, 14! 1?09, Elizabeth Brews wrote to Jc Paston with whom she hoped to range a match for her daughter: "A cousin mine, upon Monday is Valentine's Day and every t chooseth himself a mate, and if it '. you to come on Thursday night ; make provision that you may al: until then, I trust God that ye s speak to my husband and I shall we may bring the matter to a elusion."
In Samuel Pepys' time, it was St. Valentine custom for a gir declare her choice of sweethearts morning in the expectation of rec ing a gift. Churlish Pepys wrot 1666, "By and by comes Mrs. Pi with my name in her bosom for valentine, which will cost me mnn
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Helen Gray Orman is an outdoor enthusiast, an amateur golfer and photograph the inspiring country around Sacramento, California. Besides her writing which sh placed in the 'Hew Torfe Times. She, Family Digest. Photoplay, Hillman and Ace } cations, Mrs. Orman ma\es a home for her husband and her father, and teaches hw courses in California Junior High School. Tou may \now this versatile lady by hei names, Marcia Titles and Helen W. Gray.