The heart is the universal hallmark of love. This is one of the few symbols accepted and recognizable by practically every culture in the world. However,the association of hearts with this affective feeling was not consolidated until approximately the fifteenth century.
Before this time, the heart represented an organ alien to any emotional capacity, but equally important. The Egyptian culture was like this, one of the first civilizations to represent it graphically, since for them, the heart was the place where the soul and the reason of the person resided.
From 3000 BC to the Middle Ages, the figure of the heart referred to the leaves of a very long-lived and resistant type of ivy. This was reflected in vessels, murals and tombs to represent life beyond death.
After the Egyptians, the Greek colony of Cyrene (located in present-day Libya) was the one that gave it the most sentimental and carnal meaning. The symbol they used represents the leaf of the Silphium plant, which was used as a contraceptive, and for this reason, historians believe that it was then linked tolove and sexuality.
It was not until the seventeenth century that the drawing of the heart shape as we know it today was created (although there have been slight variations over time). The person in charge was Santa Margarita María de Alacoque through her religious work on the Sacred Heart of Jesus. However, its total popularity was achieved thanks to its diffusion in the French deck of cards, along with other figures such as the clover, the spade and the rhombus.
The month of February, being precisely “the month of love”, has been associated with this characteristic figure, and it is that, on the occasion of the feast of Saint Valentine, hearts flood every available corner. Our planet, itself, is also a participant in the representation of the icon and leaves us natural images as spectacular as the ones we show you in the following gallery.
