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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Another side of St Valentine?
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que sais-je
Shipmate
# 17185
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Posted
I grew up in Norwich in the early 50s. On St Valentine's day there would be a knock at the door and, when you opened it, on the step would be a small present: a tube of sweets maybe.
Does anyone know of a similar tradition elsewhere? Or maybe experienced it in Norfolk. And does St Valentine have any connection with children and presents?
We moved away before I was old enough to question the custom. I still believed in Father Christmas so why not St Valentine?
I remembered it recently but all those I knew at that time are now dead so I can't ask them.
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"controversies, disputes, and argumentations, both in philosophy and in divinity, if they meet with discreet and peaceable natures, do not infringe the laws of charity" (Thomas Browne)
Posts: 794 | From: here or there | Registered: Jun 2012
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daisydaisy
Shipmate
# 12167
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Posted
What a lovely tradition - I just had a hunt and found a description here.
I also like the tradition in the US (certainly in the mid-60's) where schoolchildren give all their classmates a card, but this doesn't go down so well on this side of the pond.
Posts: 3184 | From: southern uk | Registered: Dec 2006
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cliffdweller
Shipmate
# 13338
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by daisydaisy:
What a lovely tradition - I just had a hunt and found a description here.
I also like the tradition in the US (certainly in the mid-60's) where schoolchildren give all their classmates a card, but this doesn't go down so well on this side of the pond.
Really? Why?
In my childhood it was a huge thing. Our art project the week before would be making some sort of "mail box", often decorated with pink & red tissue paper. Learning to write our schoolmates names (thoughtfully handed out on xeroxed sheets to take home, so no one got left out-- hopefully) was practice writing.
And some children would attach a small piece of candy to their valentines-- lovely!
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"Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don't be afraid." -Frederick Buechner
Posts: 11242 | From: a small canyon overlooking the city | Registered: Jan 2008
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que sais-je
Shipmate
# 17185
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by daisydaisy:
What a lovely tradition - I just had a hunt and found a description here.
Thank you daisydaisy, I'd tried wikipedia and several other sites. Very sensible of you to go straight to the source - though in my defence I had no idea it was a Norwich only custom.
Norfolk's motto is "Do different" and I'm regularly told of Doctors annotating Norfolk patient histories with the letters "NFN" (Normal For Norfolk), so I shouldn't be surprised we have our own tradition.
I was mostly brought up by an old working class Norfolk couple so I got the the benefit of the tradition (though as a tube of sweets or home made toffee rather than some of the grander presents from the Victorian). Happy days!
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"controversies, disputes, and argumentations, both in philosophy and in divinity, if they meet with discreet and peaceable natures, do not infringe the laws of charity" (Thomas Browne)
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Gwai
Shipmate
# 11076
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Posted
See, as a parent of a schoolchild, I hate the custom. It means we have to go out and buy candy and tacky cards so that the kids can all exchange them. Of course the kids only care about the candy at this age (5 yo) so the cards are a complete waste, but everyone else will have them, and we don't want to make her suffer socially just because we think it's stupid commercialism made up by Hallmark.
Besides, on top of it all, after spending 45 minutes on homework (it was a hard day) then the poor kid has to write her name on 25 cards. I am only grateful that we were told not to write her classmates names on the cards though I suspect this was to avoid people missing out particular classmates or giving nicer valentines to their friends.
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A master of men was the Goodly Fere,
A mate of the wind and sea.
If they think they ha’ slain our Goodly Fere
They are fools eternally.
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basso
Ship’s Crypt Keeper
# 4228
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Posted
I was in the post office the other day and was joined by a class full of kids, who were each there to mail a Valentine. Just one apiece. I guess they probably got assigned another name from the class, but I was charmed by the excuse for a field trip.
Posts: 4358 | From: Bay Area, Calif | Registered: Mar 2003
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Jengie jon
Semper Reformanda
# 273
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Posted
I do not think anyone else has spotted but this auction, appropriately (according to me) on Valentines Day. After all it was the birds that were originally supposed to pair off on Valentines day.
Jengie
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"To violate a persons ability to distinguish fact from fantasy is the epistemological equivalent of rape." Noretta Koertge
Back to my blog
Posts: 20894 | From: city of steel, butterflies and rainbows | Registered: May 2001
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cliffdweller
Shipmate
# 13338
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Gwai:
See, as a parent of a schoolchild, I hate the custom. It means we have to go out and buy candy and tacky cards so that the kids can all exchange them. Of course the kids only care about the candy at this age (5 yo) so the cards are a complete waste, but everyone else will have them, and we don't want to make her suffer socially just because we think it's stupid commercialism made up by Hallmark.
Besides, on top of it all, after spending 45 minutes on homework (it was a hard day) then the poor kid has to write her name on 25 cards. I am only grateful that we were told not to write her classmates names on the cards though I suspect this was to avoid people missing out particular classmates or giving nicer valentines to their friends.
My daughter always had a lovely time crafting valentines herself with paper, glue and scraps of ribbon and other decorations from my sewing basket. My boys are less crafty-- I always worked with my sons to design something simple that we could print out on red paper on the computer using free clip art, then we'd scotch-tape some inexpensive piece of candy.
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"Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don't be afraid." -Frederick Buechner
Posts: 11242 | From: a small canyon overlooking the city | Registered: Jan 2008
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Pigwidgeon
Ship's Owl
# 10192
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by basso:
I was in the post office the other day and was joined by a class full of kids, who were each there to mail a Valentine. Just one apiece. I guess they probably got assigned another name from the class, but I was charmed by the excuse for a field trip.
I remember doing that when I was in Kindergarten! We all had a tour of the Post Office, which was an easy walk from our school. (I don't remember to whom we were mailing Valentines, but it has been quite a few years!)
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"...that is generally a matter for Pigwidgeon, several other consenting adults, a bottle of cheap Gin and the odd giraffe."
~Tortuf
Posts: 9835 | From: Hogwarts | Registered: Aug 2005
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The5thMary
Shipmate
# 12953
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Posted
In Catholic school, we were required to make a big to-do about Valentines Day. What I hated was that all the kids handed out valentine cards and candy but the less popular kids, like myself, could look forward to our more popular school mates getting a gigantic stack of cards and candy while we got about six cards and a handful of candy. My mother made me give out Valentine cards to every kid and the kids who didn't like me all that much would glance at the cards and sort of give me... a... look.
Sigh. I was weird, even back then and I think most kids knew it. So, I always sort of cringe when February 14th comes around. I don't even celebrate it, really, as Valentine's Day but as the birthday of my oldest sister.
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God gave me my face but She let me pick my nose.
Posts: 3451 | From: Tacoma, WA USA | Registered: Aug 2007
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Sir Kevin
Ship's Gaffer
# 3492
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Posted
I always brought Valentines for all of my classmates when I was in grammar school, but it was Father Christmas ( who was actually a neighbour from down the street ) who brought us anonymous gifts!
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If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Writing is currently my hobby, not yet my profession.
Posts: 30517 | From: White Hart Lane | Registered: Oct 2002
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Jonah the Whale
Ship's pet cetacean
# 1244
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by cliffdweller:
quote:
Originally posted by daisydaisy:
I also like the tradition in the US (certainly in the mid-60's) where schoolchildren give all their classmates a card, but this doesn't go down so well on this side of the pond.
Really? Why?
This side of the pond it is still seen exclusively as being about romantic love. Giving cards or gifts to more than one person is seen by many people as a bit risqué. My wife was given a Valentine card by an American friend a couple of years ago and found it rather unsettling.
Posts: 2799 | From: Nether Regions | Registered: Aug 2001
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cliffdweller
Shipmate
# 13338
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Jonah the Whale:
quote:
Originally posted by cliffdweller:
quote:
Originally posted by daisydaisy:
I also like the tradition in the US (certainly in the mid-60's) where schoolchildren give all their classmates a card, but this doesn't go down so well on this side of the pond.
Really? Why?
This side of the pond it is still seen exclusively as being about romantic love. Giving cards or gifts to more than one person is seen by many people as a bit risqué. My wife was given a Valentine card by an American friend a couple of years ago and found it rather unsettling.
ah, yes, well I guess us 'mericans are a promiscuous lot then! : )
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"Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don't be afraid." -Frederick Buechner
Posts: 11242 | From: a small canyon overlooking the city | Registered: Jan 2008
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Sir Kevin
Ship's Gaffer
# 3492
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Posted
Perhaps we are: I seemed to have a different girlfriend every two or three months when I was at university in my teens and early twenties, down by the seashore....
Monogamous for nearly 40 years, married to my lovely bride for nearly 36; I better be: daughter is 35 ten days after St. Paddy's!
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If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Writing is currently my hobby, not yet my profession.
Posts: 30517 | From: White Hart Lane | Registered: Oct 2002
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