A sweet look at Valentine’s Day from a chocolate lover

Holiday provides a great sugar high.

By:Vanessa S. Holt
   The sugar high that began with a bowl of leftover Halloween candy and ended when the last Christmas tree was placed by the curb is about to get a second wind this weekend when the contents of millions of heart-shaped boxes are devoured by lovers — or simply chocolate lovers — in homage to St. Valentine.
   To me, the true meaning of any holiday has always had a lot more to do with what kind of candy you get.
   Valentine’s Day provides a gooey treat to keep you going between the winter and spring holidays, between peppermint candy canes and marshmallow eggs.
   I’m really just in it for the chocolate, though.
   In Japan, women traditionally give chocolate to men on Valentine’s Day, spelled Barentain Dei, whether it is a gift of love or a token of friendship.
   A secular holiday there, it even has its counterpart on March 14, White Day, when men give women gifts of chocolate or candy in a white box.
   While these are fairly new traditions in Japan — Valentine’s Day was reportedly introduced by a chocolate company in 1958 — the custom of sending Valentines has its origins in the ancient Roman festival of Lupercalia, celebrated on Feb. 15.
   Roman youths chose the names of their partners from an urn during the festival of the god Lupercus a tradition that continued for centuries even after the holiday was Christianized to honor the martyrdom of St. Valentine.
   According to legend, St. Valentine secretly married couples against the orders of a Roman emperor.
   According to most historical accounts, handmade Valentines as we know them today began to circulate in the 1600s, though the earliest known card, from 1477, is in the collection of the British Library.
   There are several different versions of the origin of the holiday, but the real mystery to me is how roses could be a traditional gift on a holiday that falls right in the middle of winter.
   Sure, you can order a $40 bouquet on the Internet now and have it shipped to Barrow, Alaska, but in the past, a rose must have been a rare gift indeed in cold climates.
   But roses have always been associated with love, since roses grew from the nectar the Roman god Cupid spilled on Mt. Olympus.
   Victorians in the late 19th century attached a special significance not only to the type of flower given to a young lady, but to the way in which it was presented and received.
   While your average Victorian lover might have had trouble finding a rose in February, he or she probably was fluent in the language of flowers.
   According to the book "The Language of Flowers," written in 1913, a red rose simply denotes love, as one might imagine. The pure white rose suggests innocent and humility and is said to mean "I am worthy of you."
   Dark red has been taken as a sign of mourning, or of shame.
   Yellow roses are for jealousy or infidelity — not a color a woman in love might want to receive.
   Once you begin combining roses in different ways, placing one over another or removing thorns, you’re in deep. Red and white flowers together are taken to signify beauty.
   A rosebud without thorns says that the giver has no fear.
   Remove leaves as well and you are taking away hope as well as fear.
   And a rose in bloom placed above two buds, means secrecy.
   As for the other floral colors in the palette, it doesn’t get any simpler. Blue violets are for faithfulness, golden daffodils are for chivalry and a scarlet poppy suggests extravagance.
   Lavender is distrust, and as Shakespeare’s Ophelia knows, rosemary is for remembrance.
   The language of flowers extends to the way the bouquet is accepted. The recipient of a flower could even give a silent answer by pressing the bud to her lips to say "yes," or removing a petal to say "no."
   Receiving a bouquet with the right hand meant an affirmative reply and the left, a negative. An inverted, or upside-down flower, would reverse the meaning.
   Of course, today, giving or receiving any kind of a bouquet is a good thing, whether red, white, or upside-down. Just don’t forget the chocolate.