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!
