Roses are red, violets are blue

By Hermione Gray

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SENDING a message of love on Valentine's Day is big business in the UK. In 1999, we brought more than 23 million Valentine cards, worth nearly �39 million, according to greeting card company Hallmark.�

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Valentine's Day was originally a Roman festival, the feast of Lupercalia, which was held in honour of Juno, goddess of women and marriage.

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In later years christian priests�used the feast�to�celebrate the martyrdom of St Valentine who had�sent a note to a lady signed, 'love from your Valentine,' just before he was executed. And it was this romantic jesture that has captured the hearts of women through the ages. The tradition of sending cards grew through the Middle Ages, when young men and women in England, Scotland and France picked names of their sweethearts from a box the night before Valentine's Day.

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There was also a custom where a knight would wear a bit of ribbon or lace or a handkerchief given to him by his lady. This was called a 'token'. The tradition was continued by putting the love tokens on cards instead often trimmed with ribbons, velvet or lace.

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It wasn't until the�16th century, that people began to send paper Valentine cards, possibly the oldest form of greeting card. However, it was the Victorians who made Valentine's Day the commercial success it is today. The first mass-produced cards were introduced as enthusiastic Victorians sent their lovers cards of lace paper decorated with flowers, hearts and pictures of Cupid - the Roman god of love, who shot arrows at people to make them fall in love.�

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Queen Victoria is reputed to have sent hundreds of perfumed Valentine cards to royal retainers.

• The most expensive Valentine card ever produced was made for Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis, who sent the opera singer Maria Callas a solid gold token studded with diamonds and emeralds wrapped in a black mink coat.

• One of the most unusual greetings was created by a microbiology student in Rugby who gave his wife a card made from 500,000 million bacteria he had grown to form the words: 'I love you'