SAINT VALENTINE: Saint Valentine lived in Rome about 1700 years ago, when Christianity was still a new religion. There are two stories concerning him.
1) St. Valentine's temple was right next to the emperor's palace, and he was very popular with the public. During that period, there were many wars in the Roman empire. The Roman emperor (known as Claudius the Cruel) called on the citizens to fight. The men, however, did not want to leave their loved ones. To solve this problem of too few soldiers, Claudius ordered that no marriages should be celebrated and that all engagements be broken off. This, of course, did not solve the problem. Valentine, a priest, secretly preformed marriages and became famous for doing so. The Emperor eventually caught on to this business and had his soldiers throw Valentine into the palace dungeon, where he stayed until he was beheaded on February 14th, 270. He was buried in the church of St. Praxedes.
2) Being one of the early Christians meant that St. Valentine got persecuted as the Christians would later persecute those who were not Christians. For helping Christian martyrs he was seized and cast into jail, where he cured the keeper's daughter of blindness. Hearing about this, the Roman emperor ordered that Valentine should be beheaded. The morning of the execution, it is said that he sent the keeper's daughter a message signed "From your Valentine."
LUPERCALIA: the Roman holiday called Lupercalia was celebrated every year on February 15th. They honored a god called (big surprise here) Lupercus, who watched over shepherds and their flocks. Since the Romans used a different calendar then we do, February was later in the year and Lupercalia was a spring festival. On this holiday, Lupercus priests gathered on the Palantine at the cave of Lupercal, where, according to legend, Romulus and Remus (founders of Rome), had been nursed by a mother wolf. In latin, lupus means wolf.
Some of the rituals associated with this holiday (doesn't this sound phun?) involved Roman youths of noble birth running through the streets with goatskin thongs (known in latin as februa). Young women would crowd the streets in hope of lashing (known as februatio) the sacred thongs as it was believed that it would make them more fertile. The name of the month February comes from the meaning to purify, as do these two words. This festival was brought to Britain and France when the Roman army envaded these places and evolved, over time, into a romantic holiday. Young men drew the names of young women from a jar, and a youth was supposed to accept the girl who's name he drew as his love for at least one year.
As Christianity became more popular, the church tried (once again) to ease the transition of a pagan holiday by tying it to something more Christian, in this case St. Valentine. So the festival of Lupercalia became Valentine's Day.
CUPID: was the roman god of love, and the son of the love goddess Venus. He was depicted as a beautiful boy, armed with arrows that could either make someone fall in love, or turn them away from someone who loves them. According to one myth, Venus was jealous of Psyche (a mortal maid) 's beauty, and told Cupid to make her fall in love with the ugliest man alive. Unfortunately for Venus, Cupid fell in love with Psyche and visited her every night, making himself invisible so that she would not see him. Though he told her not to try to see him, Psyche was overcome by curiosity and did try. Cupid then left her. Psyche was so in love with Cupid that she searched the world for him, until the sky god Jupiter granted her immortality so that she could be with her love forever.
OTHER RITUALS ASSOCIATED WITH VALENTINE'S DAY: -During the medieval days of chivalry, the names of English maidens and young men were put into a box and drawn out in pairs. Each couple exchanged gifts. The girl became the man's valentine for that year. On his sleeve he wore her name and it was his bounded duty to attend and protect her. This custom of drawing names on Valentine's day was considered a good omen.
-Sending Valentines. The first valentines date back to the 15th century, when the young French duke of Orleans was captured and kept prisoner in the Tower a London. During his confinement, he wrote his wife love poem after love poem, 60 of which are still in existence. They can be seen in the British Museum.
-Sending flowers. Flowers were first sent on Valentine's Day 200 years later, when the daughter of Henry the IV of France threw a party in honor of Saint Valentine. Each lady who attended received a bouquet from the man who was chosen as her valentine.
LORE: It is said that...
-to make someone fall in love with you, you should pull a hair from the head of that person, or make a love potion by boiling rose petals for 3 and 3/4 minutes in 365 drops of water, then putting three drops of the potion in the victim's drink
-if the lines on your palm form an M you will marry
-if you sleep with a mirror under your pillow, you will dream of your future spouse
A Brief History of Valentine's DayAmore on the NetThe Origins of Valentine's DayValentine Holiday Grab Bag by Judith StamperClassical Mythology by Arthur Cotterell
© Copyright Sabrina Wish 1998
