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History's Happenings for February 14

Stars & Stripes Arrive in First Foreign Port
1778

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Birth of Frederick Douglass
1817

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Oregon Admitted to Union
1859

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Department of Commerce and Labor Established
1903

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Arizona Admitted to Union
1912

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St. Valentine's Day Massacre
1929

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Dresden Annihilated By Allied Bombing
1945

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St. Valentine's Day

St. Valentine's Day commemorates the festival of two saints -- both named Valentine -- who lived in the third century. How it came to be a day for lovers is conjecture, likely coinciding with one or another ancient pagan ritual, or with the fact that a variety of small animals and birds choose to mate about this time in temperate areas.

But the celebration of St. Valentine's Day is reminiscent of the days when love was a thing of the heart, rather than a thing of the loins the way it is today. For that reason, we hope it continues to be enjoyed.

Ash Wednesday (Lent Begins)

This is the first day of Lent, which lasts forty days and represents a time of penance. Devout Catholics attend Mass on the morn of Ash Wednesday and allow the priest to inscribe a cross on their foreheads with moist ashes as a symbol of that penance. The day is variously observed, usually without ashes, by Anglicans and Protestants as well.

The forty day period, ending on Palm Sunday, represents the trials of Moses and Elijah and, most of all, the fasting of Christ during his time in the desert, resisting the entreaties of evil.

The ashes are normally produced by burning palm fronds saved from the previous year's Palm Sunday, a full circle in that Palm Sunday represents Christ's return from the wilderness and entry into Jerusalem.




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