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Leigh Hatts  

St Valentine’s Day cancelled

St Valentine statue decorated with oranges at Vico del Gargano in Puglia

This year you will not find St Valentine in the Church calendar.

Wednesday 14 February is Ash Wednesday which takes precedence.

It’s 73 years since these two days clashed. As the Second World War drew to  a close there was little mention of St Valentine’s Day.

Should we decline to give chocolates and refuse flowers?

The Archdiocese of Chicago, which describes Valentine’s Day as a “largely secular celebration”, suggests that those wanting to mark the day should do so on Shrove Tuesday which is  “a traditionally festive time”.

Dublin’s Whitefriar Street Carmelite Church, which has Valentine relics, is observing St Valentine’s Day on Saturday 10 February with Masses at 11.30am and 3pm.

On the same day St John the Baptist Church in Coventry will be open 10am to 2pm for a rare showing of its Valentine finger bone fragment relic.

Ruth Gledhill has an interesting piece on reaction to the collision of days on The Tablet website.

You can follow the important days of Lent which begins on Ash Wednesday with a new book Keeping Lent & Easter (DLT £9.99).

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