Red roses are a popular gift on Valentine s Day
Credit: Anna Bizon/Getty Images
Valentine s Day, albeit a little different this year due to the latest Covid-19 restrictions, is here.
The annual celebration of love was once a day where people earnestly showed their affection for another person. Now heavily commercialised and laden with expectation, the event sees plenty of people panic-purchase heart-adorned cards, bumper boxes of chocolate, bouquets of red roses and teddy bears wearing T-shirts emblazoned with cutesy messages.
The oldest surviving Valentine s poem was written by a prison-entrapped, pining lover: Charles, Duke of Orleans, wrote it for his wife in 1415, confined in the Tower of London after being captured at the Battle of Agincourt.
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