Wheel of the Year the last month of the old year and the first month of the new year and is followed by eleven days of extended celebration. In Roman traditions additional festivities take place during the six days leading up to Midwinter. As the first cross-quarter day following Midwinter this day falls on the first of February and traditionally marks the first stirrings of spring. It aligns with the contemporary observance of Groundhog Day. It is time for purification and spring cleaning in anticipation of the year's new life. In Rome, it was historically a shepherd's holiday, while the Celts associated it with
Valentine (novel) great interest and poetry." Source text: Review (in French) Literary criticism: Valentine (novel) Valentine (1832) is a novel published by French author George Sand. This was the second novel published in Sand's career as an independent author, the novel is notable for displaying many of Sand's preoccupations as an emerging novelist: love, social class, greed, liberty, and family ties. Like many of Sand's novels, the novel takes its name from its title character Valentine, who is born into an aristocratic family but falls in love with the peasant farmer, Benedict. Star-crossed lovers belonging to different social classes were to become