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February 14th is a complicated but interesting holiday. First of all, Valentine's Day is not a holiday from work. No one gets a day off[1]. On Valentine's Day people usually send romantic cards to someone they love or want to be loved by. The cards are called "valentines". They are very colourful, often decorated with hearts, flowers or birds, and have humorous or sentimental verses printed inside. The basic message of the verse is always "Be My Valentine", "Be My Sweet Heart" or "Lover". A valentine is anonymous, or sometimes signed "Guess who". The person receiving it has to guess who sent it. This can lead to interesting speculation. And that's half the fun of valentines.
The affectionate message might be carried by a heart - shaped box of chocolate candies, or by a bouquet of flowers tied with red ribbon. But in whatever form, the message is the same - "Will you be my valentine?"
One of the symbols of St. Valentine's Day is the Roman god of Love, called Cupid. Cupid is often printed on the card, who is winged infant without wearing anything, poised to shoot his arrow into a heart. He would shoot an arrow of love into a person's heart to make the person fall in love[2] immedia-tely, maybe with the first person to come along. Sometimes one arrow would go through[3] two hearts, holding them together. So on February 14th not only do we have picture of the Christian St. Valentine but we also have pictures of the non-Christian Cupid, the Roman god of Love.
But it is from the Christians that we get the stories about Valen-tine's Day that most people have come to believe[4]. One story is about a Christian man whose name sounded something like "Valentine." He lived around 250 A.D. At that time the Roman Emperor Claudius refused to allow any Roman soldiers to get married for any reason whatsoever. Christian couples came to Valentine to be married. So Valentine would marry them in a Christian way. He was discovered and put in prison by the Emperor.One tradition says that he wrote notes to his friends by marking on leaves and then throwing them out the window of his prison. And the leaves were shaped like a heart.
二月十四日是一个复杂而又有趣的节日。首先，情人节不是一个休假日。没人放假。在情人节这一天，人们爱谁或想得到谁的爱，就可给那个人寄去充满浪漫情趣的卡片。这种卡片叫"情人卡"。情人卡色彩鲜艳，常装饰有心、花或鸟，里面还印有幽默或感伤性的诗句。这些诗句传递的基本信息总是"做我的情人吧"、"做我甜蜜的心上人吧"、"情人"。 情人卡是不署名的，有时也可签上"猜是谁"。收到卡片的人要猜是谁寄的。这样可产生有趣的推测，这也正是情人卡的一些乐趣。
你可以用一个心脏形状的盒子，里面放上巧克力糖，来传递爱的信息，也可用彩带扎上一束鲜花来传递。不管用什么方式，都是一样的--"你愿做我的情人吗?"
情人节的标志之一是罗马爱神--丘比特。丘比特经常被印在卡片上，他是一个赤身裸体、长有翅膀的婴儿，手里拿着箭，摆出一副要射心的姿势。他把爱之箭射中一个人的心，这个人会很快坠入爱河，可能是和他(她)第一个见到的人。有时候，一只箭会射中两颗心，把它们穿在一起。所以在二月十四日，我们不仅有基督的"圣·瓦伦登"的画像，还有非基督的罗马爱神丘比特的画像。
大多数人相信的情人节的故事来源于基督教。其中有个故事提到，有一个基督徒的名字听起来象"瓦伦登"。他大约生活在公元前250年。那时罗马皇帝克劳迪乌斯禁止罗马士兵以任何借口结婚。信奉基督教的夫妇就去找"瓦伦登"主持结婚。"瓦伦登"以基督教方式为他们秘密举行婚礼后来被罗马皇帝发现送进监狱。传说他在叶子上做标记给他朋友传递信息，然后把叶子扔出监狱的窗外。这些叶子的形状是心形的。
