Happy Valentine's Day and it's origin!

[James Steven Beverly]

Well it's the most magical time of the year when champagne, chocolate bunnies and red roses fill the air with a sexually charged energy that threatens to go nuclear! One might contemplate from whence this odd celebration of fertility and rebirth came. I, myself foolishly believed that it was a made up holiday imposed on us by the greed of the merchant class to bolster the waning holiday season with one more influx of ill gotten cash but nay, good people, I was wrong. The roots of the most red of holidays has roots far deeper into the distant past than one might perceive. An unusual woman I met at AFM this last year sent me an email Valentine along with a description of the origin of this cellophane encased, rose embossed, heart shaped candy box invested ode to Spring:

 

Many believe the origin of Valentine's Day to be "Lupercalia", the fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, Roman god of agriculture, and Roman founders Romulus and Remus. For the festival, Luperci, an order of Roman priests, would gather at the sacred cave where the infants Romulus and Remus, were believed to have been cared for by a she-wolf or lupa. The priests would sacrifice a goat, for fertility, and a dog, for purification, then dip the goat's hide into the sacrificial blood and take to the streets, gently slapping women and crop fields with the hide because it was believed to make them more fertile in the coming year. Later in the day, according to legend, the young women of the city would place their names in a big urn from which the city’s bachelors would choose a name to pair with. These matches often ended in marriage.

 

St. Valentine's Day began as a liturgical celebration of one or more early Christian saints named Valentinus. Several martyrdom stories were invented for the various Valentines that belonged to February 14, and added to later martyrologies.A popular hagiographical account of Saint Valentine of Rome states that he was imprisoned for performing weddings for soldiers who were forbidden to marry and for ministering to Christians, who were persecuted under the Roman Empire. According to legend, during his imprisonment, he healed the daughter of his jailer, Asterius. An embellishment to this story states that before his execution he wrote her a letter signed "Your Valentine" as a farewell. Today, Saint Valentine's Day is an official feast day in the Anglican Communion as well as in the Lutheran Church.The Eastern Orthodox Church also celebrates Saint Valentine's Day, albeit on July 6th and July 30th, the former date in honor of the Roman prebyter Saint Valentine, and the latter date in honor of Hieromartyr Valentine, the Bishop of Interamna (modern Temi). In Brazil, the Dia de Sao Valentim is recognized on June 12. The day was first associated with romantic love in the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer in the High Middle Ages, when the tradition of courtly love flourished. In 18th-century England, it evolved into an occasion in which lovers expressed their love for each other by presenting flowers, offering confectionery, and sending greeting cards (known as "valentines"). Valentine's Day symbols that are used today include the heart-shaped outline, doves, and the figure of the winged Cupid. Since the 19th century, handwritten valentines have given way to mass-produced greeting cards.

 

So now that you know the long history of this don't be as cynical as I was before being schooled in the history of this festival of amore' and go eat a milk chocolate bunny with someone you love!