‘The Season of Love ~ Some Ramblings on Valentine’s and Anniversaries

Yes, Valentine's Day was a good ten days ago (so, not current), but the Season of Love is more than a single day. Just as anniversaries, on one single day, mark years, decades and lifetimes. So here are my ramblings on the Season of Love.

Despite the commercialization of Valentine’s Day (along with just about every other holiday/holy day), some fairly simple logic explains the day’s existence. February (especially in colder climates) is the most barren of months. Statistically this month is colder than December. The last growing season is a good half year in the past. If you live in the frozen (even the not so frozen) north, life looks pretty bleak. Except that, you might see a snow drop or two. If you look close, you might see a bud on a tree or a couple of cardinals doing a mating dance. [Believe me, you ain’t seen nothing really funny until you’ve watched male birds trying to outshine each other to impress a female.] Other species begin the renewal process too; plants, animals, humans, all of us get in on the procreative act. Since humans are nearly as peculiar as birds, we not only begin pitching woo in earnest at this season, we also celebrate the occasion. Hence, like Halloween, Valentine’s Day was conveniently adopted in the western Christian culture to sanctify ‘pagan’ mating practices. [You can’t blame the early Christian’s really. Right or wrong, they believed humans behaving like birds was pretty sinful and needed sanctifying.]

You don’t have to search very far for the connection between valentines and anniversaries (especially the wedding type). Yes, June—high summer—is the grand season of weddings and love stories. (Who wants to read about love in the snow? Well I could point to … oh never mind that’s a different blog article. I did say these were ramblings, right?) However, thanks to Hallmark cards, birds and human nature, the gloomy month of February runs a close second. (February actually ranks second to last according to the National Center for Health Studies cited in http://suite101.com/article/the-most-popular-month-for-weddings-a114510.)

My own anniversary is in February (why is, again, another story). I know a ga-dozen or more folks who have anniversaries in this month, so obviously it’s popular (she says with tongue firmly planted in cheek). Why the dearth [fancy word for lack] of weddings and thus anniversaries, in February? You really have to ask? Can you imagine trying to manage a wedding, even a small one, in the rain, wind and snow? Do you want all your photos to have that gloomy gray-sky cast? Do women want their fancy long wedding dresses to drag in yellow snow? What female in her right mind wears a short dress in February? And Celine Dion on Oscar’s red carpet proved to us all why white pantsuits are not a good choice for a formal event. [Sorry Celine, I love your voice but you’ve got to admit that suit was not the best fashion choice.]

Oddly enough (not), the connections between Valentine’s Day and anniversaries is fairly obscure—who knew. So why do we tend to think of February as the month of love. Let’s blame it all on those darned birds. J Please leave a comment and share your thoughts about the 'Season of Love.' 

Author of historical, contemporary, and erotic romances, Rue Allyn fell in love with happily ever after the day she heard her first story. She is deliriously married to her sweetheart of many years and loves to hear from readers about their favorite books and real life adventures.  Learn more about Rue at http://RueAllyn.com or visit her at her favorite media haunts.

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Watch for Rue’s first historical romance, One Moment’s Pleasure, coming March 18, 2013, from Crimson Romance publishing. Better yet, Pre-order now through her Amazon Author page, http://www.amazon.com/author/RueAllyn.

Want to know more first? Check out this blurb, or visit http://RueAllyn.com and read an excerpt.
 

One Moment’s Pleasure will become a lifetime’s passion when spinster, Edith Alden, embarks on a search for her missing sister.  Pretending to be a rich bored woman looking for an interlude with an anonymous male Edith enters the San Francisco bordello where her sister was last seen. She escapes the bordello almost too easily, but she can’t escape the passion ignited by a stranger’s kiss. 

Born and raised in the brothels of the California gold rush, Dutch Trahern worked for years to erase a childhood spent committing petty crimes and worse in order to survive. That past comes back to haunt him in the form of a woman he rescues from prostitution. Now his hard won respectability is threatened by an irresistible desire for a woman he shouldn’t want.