article by andrew gee
A curious fig deejay, Andrew Gee, researches the history of valentines day.
Valentines day has a lot of different meanings to a lot of different people. Why do we buy cards? Why do we indulge in chocolate? Why do we have to go out to dinner and spend money on our significant other? This got me thinking, “Where did Valentines Day come from?” After numerous google searches and Internet research I think I found where Valentines day comes from.
Valentine’s Day celebrations are from both ancient Christian and Roman tradition. One legend says the holiday originated from the ancient Roman festival of Lupercalis or Lupercalia. This was a fertility festival or a lover’s holiday that was held on February 15. To elaborate more on this festival the young women in the city would put their names in a big urn. Than the city’s bachelors would reach into the urn and choose a name and become paired for the year with the women he chose. These matches often ended in marriage. This shocked me at first knowing that Valentines day originated from a festival where they drew names out of a jar to see who you would eventually marry.
In 498 A.D. Pope Gelasius declared February 14th St. Valentines Day. The pope found Lupercalis un-Christian and banned the festival. So who was St. Valentine and why was this day named after him? There are many stories of Valentine and why he was put to death. I found out that Valentine was a bishop who held secret marriage ceremonies to young soldiers and their loved ones. Emperor Claudius II thought that this would make his soldiers weak so he forbid marriage to assure a quality army. He was put in jail and martyred by the Emperor Claudius II. Prior to Valentines death, he continued to minister his prison guards. One of the guards adopted a blind girl. He asked Valentine if God could help his daughter. Valentine prayed for the girl and miraculously she received her sight. After this happened the guard and his whole family believed in Jesus and became baptized. The Emperor heard about this and he was furious that Valentine was still making converts while in prison, so he sentenced him to death.
Just before being put to death Valentine wrote a note to the jailer’s daughter, signing it, “From your Valentine.” This originated the card giving tradition, which still lives on to this day. St. Valentine was a man of love and passion, which represents this romantic holiday very well. Through out the years Valentines day has grown in to a holiday where you show your affection to the one you love.
Personally, this holiday never really meant anything to me until this past year. I am very lucky to have a person in my life that I love and can share my experiences with. Oh and did I mention that my girlfriends birthday rests on this romantic holiday? Yea, it’s a big day for me! So I started stressing out about what to get her and how many gifts I need to buy. Do I get her candy and jewelry? Do I get her flowers and jewelry? Or do I get Flowers, Jewelry, Candy and a teddy bear just to be safe.
In my opinion Valentines Day is a day that couples express there love for one another and show affection to the people they care about. Personally I think that this should be shown each and every day and you shouldn’t need one day out of the year to express your love. I hope this gives you a brief history on Valentines Day and you learned as much as I did. Whatever your feelings are toward February 14th make sure you express your love and gratitude to the people you care about.
References for this article come from:
http://www.theholidayspot.com/valentine/history_of_valentine.htm
http://www.history.com/content/valentine/history-of-valentine-s-day
