MARK MY WORD: VALENTINE'S DAY IS TIME FOR WORLF FESTIVAL AND WEDDED BLISS

Valentine's Day is full of bad poetry, not to mention all those heart-shaped boxes of chocolate.

Britney Spears Valentine cards are a hit with our just-turned 9-year-old. Becca's already filled them out so she'll be ready to hand them to her friends and classmates on Feb. 14.

For Becca and her 5-year-old sister, Bailey, Valentine's Day is a time for class parties and a chance to eat "puppy chow," not the Purina kind but the chocolate treat kind.

But it's more than just a sugary holiday in our house. It's also an anniversary. Joni and I were married 21 years ago on Valentine's Day.

Becca and Bailey can't imagine anyone being married so long, much less their parents. Just thinking about it makes them laugh hysterically.

We were married in a civil ceremony at the Common Pleas Courthouse. My best man was one of Joni's girlfriends. We had our own bailiff too because our wedding was sandwiched in the middle of some family court case.

So far, we haven't needed a bailiff in our marriage. It's worked out just fine.

As for our anniversary, Hallmark provides me plenty of Valentine cards from which to choose. For the most part, I've steered clear of the chocolate candy. Joni's not a big chocolate lover anyway. Besides, the kids bring home plenty of chocolate from their class parties.

More importantly, it's nice to celebrate our anniversary on such a heart-filled holiday and take advantage of those restaurant specials.

Still, Valentine's Day is so much more than sweet candy and a Britney Spears card.

Some experts say the origins of the holiday go back to Roman days. You have to hand it to the Romans; they always had an excuse to party. The Romans held the festival of Lupercalia on Feb. 15 to ensure protection from wolves, presumably the four-legged kind. The two-legged kind, I'm certain, were harder to keep away.

During the celebration, young men struck women with strips of animal hide and the World Wrestling Federation was born.

After the Romans trampled all over Britain, the British borrowed many Roman customs for Monty Python skits.

The earliest records of Valentine's Day in the English language tell of birds choosing their mates on that date. It took more time before the idea began to fly with people.

Of course, society used a different calendar before 1582 so Feb. 14 fell on what is now Feb. 24, giving people more time to write bad love poems and find a sweetheart for the Valentine's Day dance.

Many Valentine's Day customs involved ways that single women could discover their future husbands without going to a hockey game.

Without any television sitcoms for guidance, young women in the 1700s used to write men's names on scraps of paper, which were then rolled in clay and dropped in the water. The first paper to surface supposedly had the name of a woman's true love.

Of course, I'm sure it was difficult to read all those soggy names, making such matchmaking a chancy thing at best. Some traditions clearly are just all wet.

In Derbyshire, England, young women circled the church a dozen times at midnight and repeated verses such as "I sow hempseed, hempseed I sow, he that loves me best, come after me now." It was a catchy tune, I'm sure. Still, it never was good enough for a Gilbert and Sullivan song.

Eventually, people quit singing about hempseed and started sending flowers and greeting cards.

With so much tradition, it's no wonder so many people see red and can't resist getting married on Valentine's Day.

Joni and I know we're part of something bigger than a wolf festival, hempseed or a box of chocolate. We know love is truly full of bliss.