I
have always been fascinated by our holiday traditions and where they
actually came from. St. Valentine’s Day, as with so many of the
contemporary holidays which we, as Americans, celebrate today, has its’
beginnings in Paganism. In ancient Rome, a Pagan fertility and
purification festival called Lupercalia, was celebrated. Lupercalia is
uniquely Roman and was named after the fertility god Lupercus, protector
of flocks against wolves. In fact, he was often identified with the
gods Pan and Faunus.
Lupercalia
was an important festival and historical records indicate that Mark
Antony was Master of the Luperci College of Priests. In the year 44BC,,
he chose the Lupercalia festival as the proper time to offer the crown
to Julius Caesar. Since February occurred later on the ancient calendar
than it does today, Lupercalia was held in the spring. Each year on
February 15, the Luperci priests gathered on Palatine Hill at the cave
of Lupercal. Young men wore their loincloths and led the priests around
the pomerium, the sacred boundary of the ancient city, and around the
base of the hills of Rome.
Long after Palatine became the center of the powerful city, state and empire of Rome, the Lupercalia festival lived on. Roman armies took the Lupercalia customs with them as they invaded France and Britain. One of these customs was a lottery where the names of available maidens were placed in a box and then drawn by the young men. Each man accepted the girl whose name he drew as his love for the duration of the festival, which lasted from February 13th to the 15th, sometimes longer.
Circa 289AD, a Christian named Valentine of Rome was martyred under the Emperor Claudius. Valentine was a bishop in the city who was arrested for giving aid to prisoners. While in prison, he was said to have converted his jailer by healing the man’s blind daughters’ sight. He then fell in love with her and from his death row cell, he wrote her a note signed, “From Your Valentine.”
Somewhere
around 197AD, Christianity began to slowly do away with the Pagan
pantheons. It frequently replaced the festivals of the Pagan gods with
its’ own modern celebrations to fit the life and teachings of Christ.
Lupercalia, with its’ lover lottery, had no place in the new order. In
the year 496AD, Pope Gelasius did away with the festival of Lupercalia,
citing it as Pagan and immoral. He chose Valentine as the Patron Saint
of lovers who would be honored at the new festival on February 14th.
It
is believed that the very first valentine cards were the slips of paper
bearing the names of maidens the early Romans first drew. Or, perhaps
the note which Valentine passed to his sweetheart from his prison cell.
By the 17th century; however, handmade cards became quite elaborate and pre-fabricated ones were only for the wealthy. In 1797, a British publisher issued, “The Young Man’s Valentine Writer,” which contained suggested sentimental literature for the young lover. Today, the St. Valentine’s Day traditions continue with the giving of chocolates, jewelry and flowers. An estimated 1 billion St. Valentine’s Day cards will be sent worldwide, making it the second most celebrated holiday after Christmas.
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