Don’t you just hate this time of year? It seems to me the celebration on February 14th originated with Hallmark Cards. The perfect card, the perfect gift, the perfect date . . . Isn’t there enough pressure in relationships without having to live up to some romantic ideal on Valentine’s Day?
As the day set aside to express your love and devotion to someone has evolved over the centuries, we’ve managed to turn it into a message about how your love may be measured by what you buy.
Where did Valentine’s Day originate? It appears to stem from Imperial Roman times - around the 3rd centruy.
The Romans held a yearly festival in mid February called the Feast Of Lupercus. One of the customs associated with the feast was the drawing of girl’s names from a vase. On Lupercus Eve the young men would drawn these names and the girl he chose would be his sexual companion for the year. (now that sounds like a plan…..)
The Emperor Claudius believed that the best way to keep his army strong was not to allow the soldiers to marry and have families, the logic being that being tied down to their family would interfere with their work for the Empire. During his reign he outlawed marriages and the custom of a yearly sexual companion associated with the Feast was upheld.
Predictably, many of the soldiers and their partners fell in love and they wanted to participate in the union of marriage and pledge their eternal devotion to each other. Desperate, some couples turned to the new religion of Christianity.
A local Roman priest, Father Valentine agreed to marry the desperate couples secretly. Valentine was clearly defying the Emperor, who eventually found out. The Emperor ordered Valentine to renounce his faith. While confined in jail it is said that Valentine either fell in love with the jailer’s daughter or cured her of blindness. In the story where he cured the young maiden of blindness it is said that she fell so madly in love with him that she tried to have his life spared. Love letters were exchanged in both stories and on the day of his execution by beheading he left her a note and signed it “From your Valentine”.
Today we know February 14th as St. Valentine’s Day because as the religion Christianity became more prevalent in “modern society”, the concerned priests wanted to abolish the pagan custom of The Feast of Lupercus. Unfortunately, due to the popularity, the priests could not just abolish the holiday for fear of losing newly acquired followers. Instead it was decided to Christianize the pagan celebration of the Feast of Lupercus by changing the name and to give further Christian meaning to the day.
St. Valentine was chosen as his association with honouring true love seemed appropriate. The popular custom of drawing girls’ names that was associated with the Feast was substituted for Saints’ names. Then on St. Valentine’s Day these Saints’ names would be drawn by young people. The youth were supposed to emulate their chosen Saint for the following year. This custom lasted until the fourteenth century.
Sometime during the Middle Ages men and women began to exchange hand-made cards on St. Valentine’s Day. Another tradition had been born. These cards were elaborately decorated and contained love dedications and even proposals of marriage. They were never signed, as this was considered bad luck, and thus the tradition of the “secret admirer” started. Valentine’s Day cards increased in popularity during the 1700s and the cards were made with the precious materials of satin, ribbon and lace. This was expensive and so most of the general population could not participate. With the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain in the 1800s commercial valentines became available. These cards were still expensive and some were so ornate that they could cost upwards of $10!
The next century saw a new form of Valentine’s Day cards called the “Penny Dreadful”. These cards were cheap and almost anyone could afford them because they only cost a penny - as the name implies. They were made cheaply, the artwork amateurish and the colouring uneven. The cards contained insults to old maids, teachers and the like (another idea that we may want to bring back). As time passed these hateful sentiments disappeared and were discarded for the more thoughtful sentiments of romance, love, admiration and friendship.
Valentine’s Day has changed dramatically over the centuries, and is now celebrated as a cheap commercial holiday in which we can all buy five dollar dreadfuls to give to our loved ones. Despite this, Valentine’s Day is still one of your best chances to get lucky. So go out there get some lovin.
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If you’re a cub (younger man) living in Australia, you might want to take notice of the upcoming Sydney Cougar Convention being held at Burwood RSL on February 12th. The convention is coinciding with the premiere of the hot television show, Cougar Town starring Sydney Cox.
What woman hasn’t fantasized about being in a foreign country and meeting a handsome local who’ll sweep her off her feet.
