Valentine’s Day — History.com Articles, Video, Pictures and Facts.
As we embark upon today’s Valentine’s Day, I wanted to do a little historical research. My Valentines are ages 8 and 13, my sons. I wanted to give them not only cards and candy, but a little history on the holiday as well. I can nearly hear the grumbled “gee, thanks mom and oh, how interesting (in full sarcastic praise)” as I type. Yes, boys, you are welcome.
Who is St. Valentine anyway? There are at least three martyred saints recognized by the Catholic Church, the names ranging from Valentine to Valentinus. The actual origin of St. Valentine seems to remain mystery. However, nearly all accounts of this historical mystery figure peg him as a hero and a romantic. Valentine’s death has been narrowed down to have occurred near A.D. 270.
The third century Roman priest, Valentine, served under Emperor Claudius II. Claudius banned the marriage of young men in the attempt to create better soldiers. Valentine conducted secret marriage ceremonies which ultimately led to his death. Probably a poor choice Valentine as rulers often favor the off with his head type punishment for direct defiance. I am sure in hindsight you may have made better choices.
Other legends peg Valentine as a savior to Christians in roman prisons. Again, upon helping escapees and directly defying Roman leaders, Valentine was put to death. Again, maybe poor choices made by our dear Valentine.
Another legend depicts Valentine as an imprisoned man who constructed and sent the first valentine card on record. Poor Valentine had fallen in love while imprisoned and one legend claims his love interest as the jailor’s daughter. The young woman had visited Valentine during his imprisonment and sent her a card signed “From your Valentine” to show his love in return before being put to death. Although the reasons for his imprisonment and death were not clearly outlined in the article, I am sure it had something to do with poor yet good willed choices that defied an authority figure. That seems to be the fate of poor Valentine over and over.
Pagan Origins – What does Luperci have to do with Valentine’s Day?
What is Luperci you may ask and what in the heck does it have to do with Valentine’s day? Luperci was a pagan fertility festival that occurred on February 15. Surviving the initial rise of Christianity but was outlawed at the end of the 5th century and deemed un-Christian by Pope Gelasius, who at this time also deemed February 14 as Valentine’s Day.
Legend states a Valentine’s Day feast was inserted into mid-Februrary to Christianize Luperci, the fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, Romulus and Remus. Faunus was deemed the Roman god of agriculture, while Romulus and Remus deemed the Roman founders.
The Luperci festival begins with the festival members, an order of Roman priests, gathering in a secret cave. This cave is the historical place where Romulus and Remus were believed to have been cared for by a she-wolf, also known as a lupa. A sacrifice of a goat for fertility and a dog for purification occurred in the cave before the members stripped the goat’s hide into strips, dipped the strips into the sacrificial blood and hit the streets. While running the streets with the bloody hide, the members would gently slap the Roman women, who welcomed the act (gross and no thank you), with the hide to increase fertility. Later on, all of the young women would place their names into a large urn for bachelors to choose a name of a woman to be paired with for the year. More often than not, the pairings turned into marriages. Lovely, eh?
Well, from poor ill-fated St. Valentine to pagan rituals, Valentine’s Day has had quite a start. I am thinking I may save the pagan ritual story for a later date and just go with the martyred saint stories when giving the historical facts to my kids. I don’t want to have to answer the fertility questions. What does it mean to be fertile mommy? And why would the girls want to be fertile? Ummm…no thanks. I think my 8-year old doesn’t need to be THAT educated just yet.
Knowledge of history can suck a little of the magic out of some things. But nobody has to whip me with strips of goat hide in order for me to recognize the fertility of your intellect… Did that make any sense? We all need history. We can make our own magic. Thanks…
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Haha. I think I understood. I am pretty sure it makes sense to me, which is kind of scary in itself 😛
History is a blessing; origins mean so much. I chose http://www.history.com hoping to get one of the more reliable articles out there for my blog post. Glad you enjoyed it.
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Thanks for sharing the history behind Valentine’s Day, and thanks for visiting my “fresh pressed” post and leaving a comment a couple of days ago. I hope you had a nice Valentine’s Day.
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You are very welcome and congrats on being Freshly Pressed. I really enjoyed your blog 🙂
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[…] Valentine’s Day – A day for a saint or a pagan ritual? (fromlifeidletolifefantastic.wordpress.com) […]
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[…] Valentine’s Day – A day for a saint or a pagan ritual? (fromlifeidletolifefantastic.wordpress.com) […]
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I’m glad I found your article. I would never have made sense of this topic on my own. I’ve read a few other articles on this subject, but I was confused until I read yours.
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