Valentine's Day: Love is in the air, but what's in the glass?

Just to say it right at the beginning: Valentine's Day is by no means an invention of florists. In fact, its roots go back to late antiquity. Specifically, Pope Gelasius I (492-496) designated February 14 as the day of veneration of the martyr Valentine of Terni. Since the British poet Geoffrey Chaucer at the latest, Valentine's Day has belonged to lovers. In his poem "Parliament of fowls", all the birds come together on this day to choose a partner ; in this allegory, however, the feathered friends stand for us humans. The most famous date for St. Valentine was also described in England. In the fourth act of Hamlet, William Shakespeare's Ophelia sings of "Saint Valentine's Day", on which she "wants to be your Valentine".