Why is love symbolized by a heart

While there have been various theories of why St. Valentine became associated with love, it most likely developed during the late Middle Ages in the context of Anglo-French courtly love.

The earliest English, French and American valentines were little more than a few lines of verse handwritten on a sheet of paper, but over time, makers began embellishing them with drawings and paintings. Then, the first commercial valentines appeared in England at the end of the 18th century.

They were printed, engraved or made from woodcuts and sometimes colored by hand. The French, too, began exploiting the commercial valentine, with cards featuring angel-like cupids surrounded by hearts above , a French card, circa In , the heart icon underwent yet another transformation when it became a verb.

Trash piled up on the streets, the crime rate spiked, and it was near bankruptcy. Twenty-two years later, a new graphic form appeared that brought the heart into a whole new realm. In the original set of symbols, there were five concerning the heart.

One was colored completely red, one included white blank spots to suggest 3-D depth, another had jagged white blanks at its center signifying a broken heart, one looked as if it were in flight, and one had two small hearts sailing off together. Now there are more 30 different emojis containing a heart, and I suspect the heart image will keep evolving in unknown ways for centuries to come. While the heart may be only a metaphor, it serves us well, for love itself is impossible to define.

The continued global popularity of the heart as a symbol for love offers us a small dose of hope, serving as a reminder of the ageless assumption that love can save us. And how did it turn into the shape we know today? Jehan de Grise and his workshop, "The Heart Offering," TED Talk of the Day. Al Gore How to make radical climate action the new normal. Loading Comments You will receive mail with link to set new password. Facebook Instagram. Cabinet of Chic Curiosities. How did the Heart Become the Symbol of Love anyway?

By Francky Knapp. The pods of the silphium plantmay have inspired the V-Day heart symbol as we know it today. Forbidden and Filthy Love Letters of Yore.

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