Valentine’s Day has not always been full of mushy stuff.
There was a time, long ago, when certain days of the year had meanings to them that had nothing to do with consumerism, buying happiness and greeting cards.
The Hallmark holiday is a recent invention, with Hallmark cards and the creative expression business not yet a century old. Personally, I think Valentine’s Day is the worst of the Hallmark holidays. If someone really cares for you, I hope they would choose to show their affection more than one day each year.
Like many Judeo-Christian holidays, Valentine’s Day started out a pagan tradition.
In Rome, the Feast of Lupercalia occurred on February 15th , and was a celebration honouring Juno, the goddess of women and marriage. This date was considered to be the beginning of spring and when birds would find their mates for the year.
During this festival, unmarried women would have their names written down and all unmarried men in the village would draw a name, thereby become the women’s partners during the festival (some other sources claim it lasted for the rest of the year). To assert their masculinity, the men ran around nearly naked through the streets.
In addition to this, blood from sacrificed animals would be spilled in the streets in order to prevent wolves from coming into the fields, but also as a fertility aid for women who wished to conceive. This festival was outlawed in the fifth century. Interestingly, it has a modern incantation in the City of Edmonton.
During the third century, the Emperor Claudius II believed if his soldiers were married they would not want to leave their wives, which is why he prohibited his men from being married. A priest named Valentine would go about secretly marrying the soldiers, fulfilling their desires to be wed.
Valentine could not understand the pagan belief system and remained a devout Christian for all of his life. At one point, Valentine was caught and then killed for his crimes. It is thought that we are celebrating his death on the 14th of February.
In order to gain more supporters for the slowly-growing Christian faith at that time, politicians and figureheads then amalgamated the two days into one. As Christianity started to dominate and Paganism declined, a more romantic view of the holy day began to take place. The first connection between romantic love and Valentine’s Day was not until the 14th century, when Geoffrey Chaucer wrote a poem about Richard II and Anne’s engagement. The idea of the holiday being based on romantic love began to increase, with mentions of it in Hamlet and other literary works.
It was not until the mid-19th century that the Valentine’s Day as we know it (with cards) started to occur. Since then, there have been the additions of the exchanging flowers, gifts and, more recently, jewellery.
Personally, I think the third century celebration is way cooler than the present-day one. But I’m not always the most traditional person…
