In 496 A.D., a pope named Gelasius wanted to honor Saint Valentine’s, the third-century Roman Saint. The famous saint was said to show others how to experience love and granted miracles.
Valentine’s day is a tradition associated with love and true romance which has been turned into a universally celebrated holiday.
Now, every year a couple weeks before February 14, “Will you be my Valentine?” is the most popular question. The one day a year where getting nauseous off of See’s Candy chocolate hearts and fancy dinners with significant others or friends is the set tradition.
Walking around school on Valentine’s Day, you may have seen thousands of students’ names in the shape of hearts taped all over the walls of our school. This tradition started in 2018 at Millikan, and since then high schools like Cabrillo and Jordan have followed along.
ASB teacher Grant Robinson said, “I print out templates, then my students cut each individual heart out, way in advance so they can be ready to hang up.”
Not only is the name-hearts tradition an influence on other schools, but students every year look forward to finding different people and their own names.
9th grader Katianh Martines in PEACE said that she looked forward to finding her name. “I put my friend’s name on and she put on mine.” This tradition continues to be a popular one and adds a little bit of fun to the school day each year.
This year, clubs like the Female Leadership Academy also celebrated the holiday by selling Valentine’s Day Grams to fundraise.
“Most of the donations are going to the Ronald McDonald House and other organizations that support women,” said one 9th-grade FLA member.
These Grams were available to order one week in advance for 3-5 dollars. They were then delivered on Friday, Feb.14 to students’ classrooms or could be picked up. Due to Valentines Day, clubs are able to earn a lot of funding through holiday sales.
Along with this, Millikan celebrates Valentine’s Day through the change of dress code! Every year ASB students come up with colors and themes that get approved by the administration.
For the last two years students have been allowed to wear red, pink, or white but throughout the years those colors have been given a different meaning. Some people wore red if they were in a relationship, pink if it was complicated, and white if they were single.
This Valentine’s Day Millikan followed old traditions while also starting new ones. FLA and ASB both contributed to Millikan’s Valentines to make it special for others. Hope your Valentine’s was full of fun and love!
Kymora Khem • Mar 5, 2025 at 3:01 pm
On March 3, 2025, Hana Word wrote an article titled, “A Rams Valentine’s Day”. Word did an amazing job of explaining all the fun traditions that Millikan offers for their students and how ASB and FLA worked hard together to give Millikan a fun Valentine’s Day. However, I think that the donations going to Ronald McDonald House and other organizations to support women is very important and that it should be further elaborated on. I suggest that Word provides a link or further explains these organizations for those who are more interested in these types of programs.
Other than that, I enjoyed reading about how many students look forward to finding their names in the shape of hearts on the walls because of how it helps to not feel left out on a holiday all about couples. I am also very grateful that ASB can let students show their Valentine’s pride by wearing either pink, red, or white. In all, Word did very well in incorporating all the little traditions Millikan does and showcases how much students appreciate these customs.
Stephanie Chau • Mar 5, 2025 at 9:41 am
One March 3rd, 2025, Hana Word wrote an article titled “A Ram’s Valentines Day”. Word goes into detail about the history behind Valentine’s Day, which would include its meaning and why it is celebrated. She mentions how this universally celebrated holiday dates back to 496 A.D., when a pope named Gelasius had wanted to honor Saint Valentine’s, which had been a third-century Roman Saint. Furthermore, this saint had been famous, as they had taught people the importance of experiencing love while also granting miracles to all. This is what has been the reasons and context behind the famous holiday that occurs annually on February 14th, along with the most common question of the year, “Will you be my Valentine?”. This is a time for individuals to spend the day with the people or person they love the most, whether that be their significant other or friends.
Word then goes into more detail about what Valentine’s Day is like at Millikan High School every year. She mentions how one may have noticed on Valentine’s Day that there had been thousands of cut-out hearts with the names of each current student from across all grade levels. Furthermore, she adds on to this by saying that this tradition had started in 2018, soon occurring at other schools such as Cabrillo and Jordan. In addition to this, she had also interviewed ASB Director Grant Robinson on the process of how Millikan is able to cut and hang up each heart. Robinson mentions that he is able to accomplish this with his ASB student leaders who are tasked with cutting out each individual heart for each person. They would then hang up these hearts in advance of Valentine’s Day to ensure that all students will be able to see their names on the day of the special holiday. This event has created annual excitement among students as they look forward to finding their heart and others.
Lastly, Word mentions that many Clubs on campus are also involved with Valentine’s Day through creating activities and events that are centered around this holiday. For example, the Female Leadership Academy had celebrated this holiday by selling Valentine’s Day grams in order to fundraise. They had mentioned that most of these funds will be going to the Ronald Mcdonald House and other organizations that have the purpose of empowering and supporting women. These grams would be created at least one week in advance, where students may purchase them for $3-$5, which would then be delivered to students on February 14th. All in all, allowing clubs to fundraise money while also spreading love all throughout campus every year!