🔎February What Am I? 💖

👇🏼SCROLL DOWN TO SEE THE LOVELY ARTWORK FROM LAST MONTH’S RAINY-DAY ACTIVITY PACKET! THANKS TO ALL OF YOU!

You can send your artwork any time, and I’ll include it in the next newsletter. No deadlines for artwork! 😀 Send to CircleCBooks@gmail.com

💖 HAPPY (UPCOMING) VALENTINE’S DAY 💘

It’s almost Valentine’s Day, so I thought I’d choose something in Valentine colors for our mystery object. Guessing game runs Tuesday, February 3 – Tuesday, February 10. (That’s almost in time for Valentine’s Day, right?) Winner will be contacted by email and also announced in next month’s What Am I newsletter. Open to US and APO mailing addresses.

THE PRIZE

The winner of this month’s game may choose between a horse notepad and matching pen, or (especially for Goldtown readers) the popular gold (yes, it’s real!) and fool’s gold combo.

Guess Here!

JANUARY’S MYSTERY OBJECT

Last month’s mystery object was a jellyfish! VIOLET SMITH was the winner out of (only) 44 correct guesses (92 total guesses). I knew it was a hard one, but I was hoping a few of you would take a stab at it. Violet chose the Safari chocolate stallion figure.

The image on the left shows a jellyfish when the tide is in, floating lazily in the current. The next image shows the same jellyfish that got beached when the tide went out. The kids show you its relative size. It is a Lion’s Mane jellyfish, which is the largest jellyfish in the world (with dangerous stinging tentacles). My brother-in-law took these pictures along the shores of Puget Sound, Washington.

WHAT IS VALENTINE’S DAY ALL ABOUT?

Growing up back in the old days, I had no clue what this day was all about–except I had to buy silly little cards, write every classmate’s name on them, then hand them out into small brown paper lunch bags decorated and taped to our elementary school desks. A mom would bring in decorated heart cookies and sometimes we got candy (chocolate). That’s about it. I didn’t question it. After all, a party instead of learning the times tables? Who would question that? 😱

Years later, I dug into the history of Valentine’s Day, and I was astounded by how OLD this day is! Here’s a quick (hopefully fun) history lesson about Valentine’s Day.

Was Valentine’s Day celebrated during Andi’s lifetime (1880s)? Or earlier, during Jem and Ellie’s lifetime (1860s)? Absolutely! So, when was Valentine’s Day first celebrated? 1860? 1700? Earlier? If you guessed earlier, you are right! In fact, Valentine’s Day was first celebrated in 496 AD. There are two different explanations for the origins of the special day. Which do you prefer? (I prefer the second one.)

1. Valentine’s Day is a very old tradition. Some believe it started as a Roman festival which officially kicked off their spring season in the middle of February. (Well, okay. Maybe spring came earlier in Rome, Italy.) Part of the celebration included the boys randomly drawing names (of girls) from a box. They “courted” during the festival, and sometimes it was serious enough that many ended up getting married. (I find this hard to believe, but . . . it’s Rome, so who knows?)

2. This explanation of the origin of Valentine’s Day makes more sense to me. It was originally called the Feast of Saint Valentine, celebrated on February 14. It started out as a Christian feast day, honoring two Christian martyrs named Saint Valentine. Later on, it focused more on love and romance.

The “Valentine” martyrs have a lot of legends to go along with the day. One legend says that St. Valentine wrote the jailer’s daughter (after he healed her blindness) a letter and signed it as “Your Valentine” as a farewell before his execution. Another tradition says St. Valentine performed weddings for Christian soldiers, who were forbidden to marry.

Here is artwork showing St. Valentine performing a baptism.

As the centuries rolled along (14th-15th centuries), Valentine’s Day morphed into the romantic/love holiday we are familiar with, using the idea of “love birds,” since you could see those birds in the spring. Here is a poem by William Shakespeare from his play, Hamlet, Act IV, scene 5 (1600 AD).

• Tomorrow is Saint Valentine’s day, All in the morning betime, And I a maid at your window, To be your Valentine.

By the 18th century, the Day grew even more elaborate, where couples expressed their love for each other by presenting flowers, candy, and sending greeting cards (known as “valentines). Check out this poem from 1784. Sound familiar?

• “The rose is red, the violet’s blue, The honey’s sweet, and so are you.”

In one of Mrs. M’s favorite books, Caddie Woodlawn, (a true story set during the Civil War, 1863), Caddie’s brother Tom works hard at the general store after school to buy the biggest and best Valentine in the shop’s window. Caddie is sure the valentine is for her, because they are best friends. At school, the kids exchange comical valentines, though some are sentimental, and Caddie learns Tom bought the Valentine for Katy, a shy, frail, sickly girl he is sweet on. Eleven-year-old Caddie is shocked and simply cannot understand why Tom would do such a silly thing for a girl who can’t run or climb trees or jump into haymows.

Here are a couple of old-fashioned Valentine cards from yesteryear.

🖍️ COLORING PAGES FROM THE RAINY DAY PACKET

A few readers sent in coloring pages from last month’s activity packet. They’re lovely. Thank you, young artists! They are published here in the order in which they were received.

Ella age 16

Emily age 10

Elias age 5

Caitlyn age 9

Aubrey age 13

Caitlyn age 9