Valentine’s Day, Really? Ok.. by Jackiee
Let’s get this straight. Whenever anyone thinks of Valentine’s Day, the thought is of flowers, chocolates, candlelit dinners (ew!) and cards. The norm is for loved ones to exchange these gift to express their love. That’s cool and all, but where did this holiday start? That is the question I always ask myself,so I decided to do a little investigation work and share my findings. There are multiple stories or legends that are associated with Valentine’s Day. Read them all and then decide which one you think is true.1.) Valentine’s Day is named after St. Valentine (Valentinus) who was a priest during third century Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers as opposed to married men he outlawed marriage for young men. Valentine thought this was wrong anddefied Claudius by performing secret marriages for young lovers. When Claudius foundout he had Valentine put to death.
2.) Valentine may have been put to death for trying to help Christians escape from harsh Roman prisons, where they would be tortured. While in jail, awaiting his sentence, he wrote the first “Valentine” greeting to a young girl (the jailer’s daughter) who he had fallen in love with. Before he was killed, he wrote her a letter signed “From your Valentine”.
The Theory as to why the day is February 14th also has two different stories.
The first one being that it is to commemorate the anniversary of Valentine’s death or burial which occured around AD 270.
The secondstory is a lot different. This one says that the reason behind the choice of February as the month Valentine’s Day is in is because the Christian church used the day to make an effort to “Christianize” the Pagan celebration of Lupercalia. The celebration is on February 15 and is the fertility festival dedicated to Fraunus, the Roman god of agriculture as well as Romulus and Remus ( the founders of Rome). To begin this festival, the members of the Luperci (an order of Roman Priests) would gather in a cave that they believed the infants Romulus and Remus were cared for by a lupa (she-wolf). They would then sacrifice two animals, a goat for fertility and a dog for purification. After the sacrifice they would strip the goats hide into strips and dip them in the sacrificial blood. Afterwards they would go into the city and slap both women and crop fields with the goat hide. As gross as that sounds, the women welcomed the hides because they believed it would make them more fertile in the new year as well. After all of these festivities all the young women in the city would put their names into an urn (like drawing straws) and the city’s bachelors would choose a name and become paired with the women they chose for a year. I would just like to add how happy I am that this does not occur anymore.
After doing this research, I am surprised to say that a holiday that I thought was uncalled for and ridiculous turned out to be pretty interesting.
Also I thought I would share a fun fact that I learned: Approximately 150 Million Valentine’s Day cards are exchanged annually, making Valentine’s Day the 2nd card sending holiday after Christmas.
All I know is that the way to my heart is an underground MMA fight and some deliciously cheap Chinese food! It’s the little things that matter!
Yours Truly
Jackiee
Very cute so I got the Chinese i don’t know about the MMA since i think it is just wrestling with more real punches. But it is funny how history makes you go “THANK GOD”