Why do we celebrate St. Valentine's Day? Well, I did a little research, and I will tell you:
February 15 was a Pagan Holiday called Lupercalia celebrating fertility. As Christianity came into power in Europe, these holidays were re-named for early Christian martyrs. I guess, they just looked for one who had some sort of connection and named it for him. Although there were many different saints who were named "Valentine," the one traditionally assosciated with Valentines day is St. Valentine of Rome. He was a priest during the reign of Claudius II in about 270 A.D. According to legend, the emperor outlawed marriage. He thought that the soldiers would fight better if they didn't have to worry about families back home. So, Valentine secretly performed marriages, defying Claudius. When the emperor found out, he had Valentine imprisoned. Valentine learned that Asterius, his jailer had a blind daughter. She was healed by the priest and he wrote a letter to her before he was killed, signed "from your Valentine." St. Valentine was executed on February 14.
St. Valentine became the overseer of the formerly pagan feast day, which now was re-named in his honor. Young Roman men would traditionally write a letter of affection on the feast day to women they wished to court and the letters became called "Valentines."
"For this was on St. Valentine's Day, When every fowl cometh there to choose his mate."
It became common during the 1900's in England to make Valentines cards out of lace and paper. One of the first Valentines Cards was sent from Charles, Duke of Orleans in 1415 A.D. to his wife, while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London.
So, there you have it, the history (I'm going to use that term loosely) of Valentines Day.
I got a letter in the mail from Andrew's preschool today. His teacher Miss Lesli, is the greatest.
Pretty sweet, huh?In our house, on Valentines Morning, the kids find a surprise left by the Love Bug. She must be some sort of arachnid, because she leaves a trail of string all over the house for them to follow. Frank and I don't usually go out, we have a fancy dinner at home with the kids on the nice china and some heart-shaped cake. I am going to try and make a red velvet this year. We'll see...
Happy Valentine's Day!
3 comments:
What a priceless letter from Andrew! Sounds like a fun day and good luck on your cake!
Your turkey must be finger-lickin good, Jen. We're dong a Valentine lunch this year--we usually avoid restaurants all together but we need some couple time. We still get to do dinner with the kids, though, and they have a treasure hunt to figure out while we're at lunch. As a rule I'm a humbug about holidays, and I don't get into all the lovey dovey crap of V-day, but I do have fun with this one.
Here's what happened at the Lupercalia, according to the Oxford Classical Dictionary:
"[G]oats and a dog were sacrificed at the Lupercal (a cave at the foot of the Palatine [hill] where a she-wolf reared Romulus and Remus); the blood was smeared with a knife on the foreheads of two youths (who were obliged to laugh), and wiped with wool dipped in milk; then the Luperci, naked except for girdles from the skin of sacrificial goats, ran (probably) round the Palatine striking bystanders, especially women, with goat-skin thongs. The rite combined purificatory lustration and fertility magic, but no interpretation is fully satisfactory. The festival survived until at least AD 494 when Gelasius I, the bishop of Rome, perhaps banned Christian participation and transformed it into the feast of Purification of the Virgin."
Getting smacked with the thong was supposed to be good luck and promote fertility. I imagine that those who were lucky enough to be struck, decided to test their fertility as quickly as they could.
According to St. Augustine (City of God 18.17), the Lupercalia was probably in some way associated with the rites on Mt. Lykaion in Greece. According to legends, Mt. Lykaion was a place of human sacrifice and werewolves.
So there you have it, maybe "Valentine's Day" should really be called "Werewolf Day." It might be more fun if we were sacrificing dogs and beating people with leather whips. (Oh wait, Frank already does that on Valentine's Day.)
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