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**是壹個復雜而又有趣的節日。首先，情人節不是壹個休假日。沒人放假。在情人節這壹天，人們愛誰或想得到誰的愛，就可給那個人寄去充滿浪漫情趣的卡片。這種卡片叫"情人卡"。情人卡色彩鮮艷，常裝飾有心、花或鳥，裏面還印有幽默或感傷性的詩句。這些詩句傳遞的基本信息總是"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，有時也可簽上"猜是誰"。收到卡片的人要猜是誰寄的。這樣可產生有趣的推測，這也正是情人卡的壹些樂趣。
妳可以用壹個心臟形狀的盒子，裏面放上巧克力糖，來傳遞愛的信息，也可用彩帶紮上壹束鮮花來傳遞。不管用什麽方式，都是壹樣的--"妳願做我的情人嗎？"
情人節的標誌之壹是羅馬愛神--丘比特。丘比特經常被印在卡片上，他是壹個赤身裸體、長有翅膀的嬰兒，手裏拿著箭，擺出壹副要射心的姿勢。他把愛之箭射中壹個人的心，這個人會很快墜入愛河，可能是和他（她）第壹個見到的人。有時候，壹只箭會射中兩顆心，把它們穿在壹起。所以在二月十四**，我們不僅有基督的"聖·瓦倫登"的畫像，還有非基督的羅馬愛神丘比特的畫像。
大多數人相信的情人節的故事來源於基督教。其中有個故事提到，有壹個基督徒的名字聽起來象"瓦倫登"。他大約生活在公元前250年。那時羅馬皇帝克勞迪烏斯禁止羅馬士兵以任何借口結婚。信奉基督教的夫婦就去找"瓦倫登"主持結婚。"瓦倫登"以基督教方式為他們秘密舉行婚禮後來被羅馬皇帝發現送進監獄。傳說他在葉子上做標記給他朋友傳遞信息，然後把葉子扔出監獄的窗外。這些葉子的形狀是心形的。