Page 415 - J. C. Turner - History and Science of Knots

The True Love Knot 409

.... farmers, who tilled their own grounds, and were equal strangers
to opulence and poverty ... wrought with cheerfulness on days of
labour; but observed festivals as intervals of idleness and pleasure.
They kept up Christmas carols, sent true-love-knots on Valentine
morning, ate pancakes on Shrove-tide, showed their wit on the first
of April, and religiously cracked nuts on Michaelmas eve.

Valentine's Day (February 14th) is the celebration day for the Roman
martyr-priest St. Valentine, the patron saint for lovers. The date was chosen
to be the one when people believed birds started mating. This custom was
recorded in the English literature by Geoffrey Chaucer (ca. 1340-1400) for the
first time as the Parliament for Bryddes. The original intention of the day
was to give (expensive) presents to beloved ones. Halfway through the 17th
century the presents became less expensive, and elaborate handpainted knots
came to be used as decorations on the gifts. These knots were usually single-
stranded, and had endless lines of words written along their lengths-words
expressing sentiments of love. In Fig. 5 we show a picture of one of these
knots, taken from Witt's Recreation (1641). These knots were predecessors
of the knots to be printed on later Valentine gifts, such as letters, vases, jugs
and cups. The hand-made Valentine objects came to display labyrinths, which
were combined with knots to amplify the symbolic power of the Love Knot,
and enhanced with pairs of doves and angels. The Valentine objects spread
from Britain, and found fertile commercial breeding ground in America. In
other countries the custom lapsed on religious grounds [28].

Fig. 5. Knot from Witt's Recreation (1641)