Valentine’s Day cards too sugary sweet for you? Return to the 19th-century custom of the spicy ‘vinegar valentine’
Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — Ahh, Valentine’s Day: the perfect moment to tell your sweetheart how much you love them with a thoughtful card.

![A woman turns down a dapper ‘snake’ in a ‘vinegar valentine’ from the 1870s. [Wikimedia Commons] dapper snake](https://www.samoanews.com/sites/default/files/styles/teaser/public/field/image/dapper_snake.jpeg?itok=wGX8evuw)
![Samoan tenor Pene Pati poses outside of the Park Avenue Armory in New York on Sept. 25, 2025. [AP Photo/Ron Blum] Pene Pati](https://www.samoanews.com/sites/default/files/styles/teaser/public/field/image/pene_pati.jpeg?itok=JVygkg6D)







![The defendant was held without bail. [SN file photo] TCF GATE](https://www.samoanews.com/sites/default/files/styles/teaser/public/field/image/tcf_gate_with_painted_wall_78.jpg?itok=sSHnLOX_)