Valentine's Day - The Holiday
Of Love
by Melissa Alvarez
How did Valentine's
Day begin?
Valentine’s Day… ah… a time to spend with the ones you love. We
celebrate Valentine’s Day by giving flowers, chocolates or other gifts
to each other in the spirit of showing our love for one another. But how
did this Holiday of Love actually begin? I
thought I’d give you a brief history of Valentine’s Day in
celebration of the holiday.
Although there are several different opinions as to the actual origin
of the holiday, Legend says that St. Valentine, a Catholic bishop in 5th
Century Rome served as a priest at the temple during the reign of the
Emperor Claudius. The Emperor decided that men who were married made
terrible soldiers and banned marriage from his realm. But Valentine
secretly performed the marriage ceremonies of those who asked him to
marry them. When Claudius found out he tried to convert Valentine to
paganism but Valentine, turning the tables, tried to convert Claudius to
the church. Claudius in turn had Valentine imprisoned and then beheaded.
While Valentine was in prison he fell in love with the jailer’s blind
daughter. His love for her and his enormous faith enabled him to heal
her blindness before he died. As a farewell gesture Valentine left the
girl a farewell note signing it “From Your Valentine”. The first
Valentine card grew from his simple gesture of love.
In 496 A.D. Pope Gelasius chose February 14th to honor St. Valentine
in order to do away with an 800-year tradition of a pagan celebration in
mid-February that commemorated young men’s rite of passage to the god
Lupercus. During the celebration these young me would choose the name of
a teenage girl from a box and she would be his sexual partner for the
remainder of the year. Pope Gelasius didn’t like this part of the
tradition and ordered a change. He allowed both women and men to draw
names from the box, the names of Saints. During the remainder of the
year both men and women were to emulate the ways of the saint that they
drew. Needless to say the men weren’t too happy with this rule, nor
the women for that matter. Pope Galasius wanted to choose a suitable
saint of love to take the place of the pagan god Lupercus. He chose St.
Valentine.
So carry on the tradition of St. Valentine and profess your love
through a note, card or gift. And while you’re purchasing those items
don’t forget to pick up a novel by one of your
favorite authors.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
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