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Show By JUDY JENSEN Friday is Valentine's Day. YOU'RE busily cleaning up the last remnants of the mess in the kitchen. Heart-shaped cookie cutters cut-ters and the not-so-perfect, heart-shaped heart-shaped cookies, that weren't suitable suit-able for the PTA, are strewn over the table. Most of the sugar filled candy is inside the sugar filled children chil-dren that have been sent 'bouncing 'bounc-ing back to school. Half torn envelopes from Ziggy and Donald Duck Valentines adorn the counter tops and you notice that the top layer of the heart-shaped heart-shaped bo rf r;r ' s yOU re. ceived frotu your " v u jntine" has dwindled to one piec. As you painstakingly wipe liie iasl of the pink frosting off the wall, it may seem that Valentines Day has lost some of its romance. THERE WAS a time when sending send-ing a Valentine was a serious matter, mat-ter, and Valentine's Day marked the beginning of a full year of courtship. court-ship. Most people have no idea that the Saint's Day they celebrate is connected with ancient pagan customs. of spring when "a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love," and when the birds begin mating. OVER THE years the custom of choosing a Valentine has changed dramatically. Today every school child hands out dozens of Valentines. Valen-tines. During the 1400's, choosing a "Valentine" was the same as choosing a spouse, and each person per-son had only one "Valentine." In France, it was the custom that the first young man to be seen by a girl on Valentine's Day became her "Valentine," or her boy-friend for the year and usually the friendship ended in marriage. Of course this custom could be manipulated. One young woman wrote, "Last Friday was Valentines Day. Mr. Blossom was my man. I lay abed and shut my eyes all the morning, till he came to our house; for I would not have seen another man before him for all the world." ANOTHER OLD Valentine custom cus-tom that has not survived, is that of drawing Valentines by lot. The names of young women were put into a box and drawn by the young men, guided purely by luck. The This event created a revolutionary revolution-ary change in the exchange of Valentines. The Valentine written on paper began to replace the Valentine as a person. The 14th of February became a day to be looked forward to by many a maid, young and old, for this was the day when a lover could prove his affection affec-tion by sending a Valentine. For the timid male who didn't have the ability to compose his own verse, there were little books published called "Valentine Writers" to help him. These books catered to every taste from the heavy sentimental down to. the comic. One such example ex-ample follows: "A WIDOW to a widow sues, and hopes his suit she'll not refuse. You have a child and so have 1, they may cement affection's tie. Our fortunes I believe are equal, let's join to make a pleasing sequel. At least such is my fond design, if you'll concent dear Valentine." If the widow wanted to refuse the following was suggested: "Resolved "Re-solved no more to be a wife but e'en to lead a widow's life; I must the amorous suit decline, which you have made, my Valentine. I pray you do not take offense, I own |