Saint Valentine's Day or Valentine's Day is a saints day commemorating Saint Valentine on February 14. It is the traditional day on which lovers express their love for each other; sending Valentine's cards, donating to charity or gifting candy. It is very common to present flowers on Valentine's Day. The holiday is named after two men, both Christian martyrs among the numerous Early Christian martyrs named Valentine. The day became associated with romantic love in the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer in High Middle Ages, when the tradition of courtly love flourished.

The day is most closely associated with the mutual exchange of love notes in the form of "valentines." Modern Valentine symbols include the heart-shaped outline and the figure of the winged Cupid. Since the 19th century, handwritten notes have largely given way to mass-produced greeting cards.^[1] The mid-nineteenth century Valentine's Day trade was a harbinger of further commercialized holidays in the United States to follow.^[2] The U.S. Greeting Card Association estimates that approximately one billion valentines are sent each year worldwide, making the day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year behind Christmas. The association estimates that women purchase approximately 85 percent of all valentines.^[3]

The lives of young boys and girls were strictly separate. However, one of the customs of the young people was name drawing. On the eve of the festival of Lupercalia the names of Roman girls were written on slips of paper and placed into jars. Each young man would draw a girl's name from the jar and would then be partners for the duration of the festival with the girl whom he chose. Sometimes the pairing of the children lasted an entire year, and often, they would fall in love and would later marry.

Under the rule of Emperor Claudius II Rome was involved in many bloody and unpopular campaigns. Claudius the Cruel was having a difficult time getting soldiers to join his military leagues. He believed that the reason was that roman men did not want to leave their loves or families. As a result, Claudius cancelled all marriages and engagements in Rome. The good Saint Valentine was a priest at Rome in the days of Claudius II. He and Saint Marius aided the Christian martyrs and secretly married couples, and for this kind deed Saint Valentine was apprehended and dragged before the Prefect of Rome, who condemned him to be beaten to death with clubs and to have his head cut off. He suffered martyrdom on the 14th day of February, about the year 270. At that time it was the custom in Rome, a very ancient custom, indeed, to celebrate in the month of February the Lupercalia, feasts in honour of a heathen god. On these occasions, amidst a variety of pagan ceremonies, the names of young women were placed in a box, from which they were drawn by the men as chance directed.

The pastors of the early Christian Church in Rome endeavoured to do away with the pagan element in these

Gradually, February 14 became the date for exchanging love messages and St. Valentine became the patron saint of lovers. The date was marked by sending poems and simple gifts such as flowers. There was often a social gathering or a ball.

In the United States, Miss Esther Howland is given credit for sending the first valentine cards. Commercial valentines were introduced in the 1800's and now the date is very commercialised. The town of Loveland, Colorado, does a large post office business around February 14. The spirit of good continues as valentines are sent out with sentimental verses and children exchange valentine cards at school.

2008 outlook: Spending

The big question: Will oil prices continue their surge in 2008 and wreak havoc with your budget? The answer, fortunately, is, not likely.

(NEW YORK) Money Magazine -- Although the cost of a barrel of crude jumped more than 40 percent this year to over $90 in October, the spike was driven more by jitters about unrest in the Middle East and forecasts of strong demand than by a drop in supply.

As a result, most oil watchers expect the price of crude to recede from its recent level of about $93 a barrel to an average of about $80 in 2008.

Make money in 2008:
The entire outlook

• The economy

• Housing

• Investing

• Credit and savings

• Your job

• Spending

That's still up noticeably from a year ago, though, so when you combine next year's higher price with a colder weather forecast, you can expect to pay at least 10% more to heat your home this winter than in 2007 - and possibly a lot more.

Oil: No longer a heavyweight

Meanwhile, analysts forecast that you'll also face slightly higher prices at the pump - about $2.83 a gallon on average in 2008 (and $3.05 in the peak summer driving season) vs. $2.75 this year. Still, that's an improvement from the $3.15 a gallon you were shelling out in May, when prices topped out.

In addition, you'll find that the weak dollar has made everything from Italian leather handbags to a ski vacation in the Canadian Rockies more expensive.

But for travelers, there are still many places in the world where the dollar goes a long way. Among them: Latin America, Eastern Europe and many parts of Asia.

There's also good news if you're a gadget junkie, as competition among manufacturers leads to sharply lower prices on all sorts of consumer electronics, from flat-screen televisions to laptop computers and digital cameras.

The wild card: A crisis in the Middle East - for instance, a major confrontation with Iran - could cause a serious disruption in the supply of oil. So could a natural disaster that shuts down refineries as hurricanes did two years ago.

If that happens, crude prices could zoom past $90 again and stay there, eventually pushing gas prices well over $3 a gallon.