HAPPY VALENTINE’S WEEK!!!
Hope you had a lovely Valentine’s Day on Sunday. I had a nice little one with my usual beautiful flowers and yummy chocs from my Valentino, lol!!!
Valentine’s Day occurs every 14th of February, and have you ever thought about why we celebrate it and what is its origin?
Well, I didn’t know much about it until now. It only took me fifty years to learn more about it, ha!
This celebration dates back to the ancient Roman era, and that St. Valentine's Day as we know it now, contains traces of both Christian and old Roman tradition.
The history of St. Valentine is shrouded in mystery though. There were two different saints named Valentine or Valentinus, a Latin word for worthy, strong, or powerful person, that the Catholic Church recognised. They were martyrs because of their faith.
One was a legendary priest who served during the third century in Rome. When the Emperor outlawed marriages at the time because he wanted all the young men to be single-soldiers, priest Valentine continued to perform marriages of young lovers in secret, in defiance of such law. As a result, when the Emperor found out his activities, he ordered the beheading of the priest.
The other Valentine whom some alleged that this celebration’s namesake came from, was Valentine, the Bishop of Terni, who was also beheaded by the Emperor, for attempting to help Christians escape from harsh Roman prisons, where they were often beaten and tortured.
Because there was so much confusion about the true identity of St. Valentine, the Catholic Church discontinued liturgical veneration of him in 1969. However, his name remains in its list of officially recognised saints.
The ancient Roman connection of this celebration came from the pagan festival Lupercalia, held each year in Rome on the 15th of February. It was a fertility festival offered to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, and to the Roman founders Romulus and Remus.
But the celebration was a bloody, violent, and sexually-charged celebration flooded with animal sacrifice, random matchmaking, and coupling in the hopes of warding off evil spirits and infertility.
Some believe that the celebration of St. Valentine’s Day on the 14th of February was to commemorate the death or burial anniversary of Valentine, which was thought to be around A.D.270. However, others claim that the Catholic Church decided to coincide the celebration of St. Valentine’s feast day in the middle of February to Christianise the pagan festival of Lupercalia.
So there you go! I hope you learned a little something about our Lovers-Day that is St Valentine’s Day. If you want to read more about it, click here.
Till here for now, until next Wednesday. Keep well, and stay safe!
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