Valentine's Day history
BLACKPOOLJIMMY
Valentine’s Day is the annual holiday honoring lovers. It is
celebrated on February 14 by the custom of sending greeting cards or
gifts to express affection. The cards, known as valentines, are often
designed with hearts to symbolize love. Every February, across the
country, candy, flowers, and gifts are exchanged between loved ones,
all in the name of St. Valentine. But who is this mysterious saint and
why do we celebrate this holiday? The history of Valentine's Day --
and its patron saint -- is shrouded in mystery.
The history of Valentine's Day is obscure, and further clouded by
various fanciful legends. St. Valentine's Day, as we know it today,
contains vestiges of both Christian and ancient Roman tradition. Its
roots are obscured by mystery and there are varying opinions about it.
Its origins have become themes of many legends.
According to legend, the holiday has its roots in the ancient Roman
festival of Lupercalis/Lupercalia, a fertility celebration
commemorated annually on February 15. As Christianity came to
dominance in Europe, pagan holidays such as Lupercalia were frequently
renamed for early Christian martyrs. In 496 AD, Pope Gelasius recast
this pagan festival as a Christian feast day circa 496, declaring
February 14 to be the feast day of the Roman martyr Saint Valentine,
who lived in the 3rd century.
Which St. Valentine this early pope intended to honor remains a
mystery. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, there were at least
three early Christian saints by that name. One was a priest in Rome,
another a bishop in Terni, and of a third St. Valentine almost nothing
is known except that he met his end in Africa. Rather astonishingly,
all three Valentines were said to have been martyred on Feb. 14.
Most scholars believe that the St. Valentine of the holiday was a
priest who attracted the disfavor of Roman emperor Claudius II around
270. The history of St. Valentine's Day has two legends attached to it
- the Protestant and the Catholic legend. According to both legends,
Valentine was a bishop who held secret marriage ceremonies of soldiers
in opposition to Claudius II who had prohibited marriage for young men
and was executed by the latter. Although many scholars agree that
Lupercalia was moved from Feb. 15th to the 14th and was Christianized
by associating it with this St. Valentine character, it is still
unclear just who the historical St. Valentine was. One school of
thought believes that he was a Roman martyred for refusing to give up
his Christian faith. According to church tradition St. Valentine was a
priest/bishop of Rome in about the year 270 A.D.
At that time the Roman Emperor Claudius-II who had issued an edict
forbidding marriage. This was around when the heyday of Roman empire
had almost come to an end. Lack of quality administrators led to
frequent civil strife. Learning declined, taxation increased, and
trade slumped to a low, precarious level. And the Gauls, Slavs, Huns,
Turks and Mongolians from Northern Europe and Asian increased their
pressure on the empire's boundaries. The empire was grown too large to
be shielded from external aggression and internal chaos with existing
forces. Thus more of capable men were required to be recruited as
soldiers and officers. When Claudius became the emperor, he felt that
married men were more emotionally attached to their families, and
thus, will not make good soldiers. He believed it made the men weak.
So to assure quality soldiers, he banned marriage.
Valentine, realized the injustice of the decree. Seeing the trauma of
young lovers, he met them in a secret place, and joined them in the
sacrament of matrimony. He defied Claudius and continued to perform
marriages for young lovers in secret. But Claudius soon learned of
this "friend of lovers," and had him arrested.
While Valentine was in prison awaiting his fate, he came in contact
with his jailor, Asterius. The jailor had a blind daughter. Asterius
requested him to heal his daughter. The Catholic legend has it that
through the vehicle of his strong faith he miraculously restored the
sight of Asterius' daughter, a phenomenon refuted by the Protestant
version which agrees otherwise with the Catholic one. Just before his
execution, he asked for a pen and paper from his jailor, and signed a
farewell message to her "From Your Valentine," a phrase that lived
ever after. Another legend has it that Valentine, imprisoned by
Claudius, fell in love with the daughter of his jailer. However, this
legend is not given much importance by historians. Probably the most
plausible story surrounding St. Valentine is one not focused on Eros
(passionate love) but on agape (Christian love): he was martyred for
refusing to renounce his religion.
The emperor, impressed with the young priest's dignity and conviction,
attempted to convert him to the Roman gods, to save him from certain
execution. Valentine refused to recognize Roman Gods and even
attempted to convert the emperor, knowing the consequences fully. What
happened was what was to happen. All attempts to convert the emperor
failed.
On February 14, 270 AD, Valentine was executed.
Valentine thus become a Patron Saint, and spiritual overseer of an
annual festival. The festival involved young Romans offering women
they admired, and wished to court, handwritten greetings of affection
on February 14. The greeting cards acquired St.Valentine's name.
It was not until the 14th century that this Christian feast day became
definitively associated with love. According to UCLA medieval scholar
Henry Ansgar Kelly, author of Chaucer and the Cult of Saint Valentine,
it was Chaucer who first linked St. Valentine's Day with romance.
In 1381, Chaucer composed a poem in honor of the engagement between
England's Richard II and Anne of Bohemia. As was the poetic tradition,
Chaucer associated the occasion with a feast day. In medieval France
and England it was believed that birds mated on February 14, and the
image of birds as the symbol of lovers began to appear in poems
dedicated to the day. In Chaucer's "The Parliament of Fowls," the
royal engagement, the mating season of birds, and St. Valentine's Day
are linked:
"For this was on St. Valentine's Day, When every fowl cometh there to
choose his mate."
By the Middle Ages, Valentine was one of the most popular saints in
England and France. Despite attempts by the Christian church to
sanctify the holiday, the association of Valentine’s Day with romance
and courtship continued through the Middle Ages. Over the centuries,
the holiday evolved, and by the 18th century, gift-giving and
exchanging hand-made cards on Valentine's Day had become common in
England. Hand-made valentine cards made of lace, ribbons, and
featuring cupids and hearts eventually spread to the American
colonies. The first commercial Valentine's Day greeting cards produced
in the U.S. were created in the 1840s by Esther A. Howlanda Mount
Holyoke, a graduate and native of Worcester, Mass. Howland, known as
the Mother of the Valentine, made elaborate creations with real lace,
ribbons and colorful pictures known as "scrap". The tradition of
Valentine's cards did not become widespread in the United States,
however, until Howland began producing them in large scale. Today, of
course, the holiday has become a booming commercial success. According
to the Greeting Card Association, 25% of all cards sent each year are
valentines.The Valentine's Day card spread with Christianity, and is
now celebrated all over the world. One of the earliest card was sent
in 1415 AD by Charles, duke of Orleans, to his wife while he was a
prisoner in the Tower of London. The card is now preserved in the
British Museum.
Whoever Valentine was, we know he was an actual person because
archaeologists have recently unearthed a Roman catacomb and an ancient
church dedicated to a Saint Valentine.
Buck Turgidson
Somehow, a celebration of a "beheading" of a "bishop" by spending
exhorbitant amounts of money in the pursuit of sex sounds about right,
in the Freudian sense.
topaz...@gmail.com
This is such a wonderful story. Thanks for sharing this!!
Jim Beam
If you can't show the one that you love the other and 364 days out of
the year, there is something wrong.