Issue 14.11
We haven’t any new information to give you this week on the November Senior Week event as we are still waiting for our Celebrities to confirm their dates with us, then we can publish the calendar of events. If you did not read last week’s paper and would like information on the Senior Week event please see the article on our website seniorsampler.com under archives Barbara Leadenham.
As we mentioned last week all the proceeds from Senior Week are going to our local Veterans Coalition, our goal is to give them $100,000 towards the amount they need to raise to furbish their new nursing home which is being built later this year at Ivins.
We will be doing many different things from now until the end of Senior Week to raise these funds but one of the things we will be doing is selling Lovelocks.
Here is some information on the history of Lovelocks.
It’s easy to love somebody deeply—to have a lover, friend, or family member in your life that shapes your happiness—but it isn’t always easy to let them know exactly what they mean to you. Locking your love with a padlock is the perfect symbolic way of letting those significant people know just how significant they really are.
Following an ancient custom, which is believed to have originated in China, lovers would climb the highest peaks with a padlock after inscribing their name or initials on it and throw the key away symbolically locking their love forever. Around the world cities from Moscow to Rome are filled with fences, gates, and poles adorned with padlocks.
In Italy the love padlock enthusiasm came first to Rome because of a romantic event mentioned in two novels by Federico Moccia, Tre Metri sopra il Cielo (Three meters above the sky) and Ho Voglia di Te (I Desire You). Later a popular film was also made based on these romantic novels which accelerated the fad of lovelocks in Italy. As per the story, a young man trying to win the heart of a favored girl, tells her that there is a tradition of putting a padlock on an old bridge in Rome, and tossing the key in the river, this would make their love last forever. This started a new trend and couples began putting their locks onto a street lamp on Ponte Milvio.
These love padlocks have now made their way into the USA. The popular cultural phenomenon has jumped across the Atlantic and is now showing up on the Brooklyn Bridge, New Mexico, Illinois, Michigan, Nebraska, Ohio, California, Arizona, Nevada, and Utah. Dozens and dozens of them fastened to benches, supports, pillars and extraneous pieces of metal. Most of the locks have dates on them, plus the names of the lovers who swore their undying faithfulness.
September 10, 2010, the very first “Lovescape” in the USA was erected here in this area. These “Lovescapes” are designated structures to “lock your lovelock to”. We now have two “Lovescapes” in this area, one in the shape of a Dream catcher at the entrance of Zion’s National Park and a Gate at the front of a Historical home on North Main Street St. George.
This set us off thinking it would be a beautiful memorable way we could remember our Veteran family members and friends, those that we have lost, those still living and those still serving in the military.
We are having a special Veterans “Lovescape” made, something symbolic to the Veterans that we can place near the nursing home in Ivins, then on Saturday November 19th the week after Senior Week we would have a designated time for everyone who had bought a Veterans Lovelock from us to come and place their locks on the “Lovescape”.
The Veteran Lovelocks can be purchased from the Senior Sampler Office 581 E. 100 S. St. George; the cost will be $15. We also have the regular Lovelocks for sale which can be put on the “Lovescapes” at Zion’s National Park and Main Street and the profits from them both will go to the Veterans. We have a special pen that you can use to inscribe the back of your Lovelock.
These padlocks are an expression of hope and humanity, connecting people around the world with the one thing that unites us all: LOVE. A USA company is now providing communities and tourists access to this new trend that is sweeping the globe. People can now “lock their love” to the significant people in their lives—be it a soul-mate, family member, or friend. With the help of LoveLocks, we can all create a beautiful “Lovescape”, making this world a brighter place one lock at a time.