by Sarah G.
February 14, a day where you give a loved one chocolates, flowers, and teddy bears to celebrate the love. Everyone knows this day to be Valentine’s Day; some people love it and others not so much… but however you feel about it, I’m sure there’s one question you don’t know the answer to, “Why do we celebrate it?” The story is pretty crazy to say the least; I’m sure that’s what St. Valentine would say.
Valentine’s Day has Catholic and ancient Roman undertones; it’s actually where is all began. The Catholic Church recognizes three different saints with the name Valentine or Valentinus at least, and all of the saints were martyred (“a person who voluntarily suffers death as the penalty of witnessing”). The stories of these saints are all legends with one being St. Valentine’s who served as a priest in 3rd Century Rome. Emperor Claudius II who ruled Rome said that young single men served as better soldiers than men who had wives and families, so the only reasonable thing to do was outlaw marriage for young men. St. Valentine saw the injustice in it and married young couples in secret; Claudius saw what St. Valentine was doing and put him to death. Many believe it was actually St. Valentine of Terni, who is the bishop that our Valentine’s Day celebrates, but he, just like St. Valentine (the priest), was put to death by Claudius.
Other legends state that St. Valentine was helping Christians escape the harsh Roman jails where they often beat and tortured the prisoners. Another interesting legend was of an imprisoned Valentine writing the first love letter to his jailor’s daughter, and at the end of the letter he signed it, “From your Valentine”, which is a phrase we use still today. Throughout time, St. Valentine has become someone who was heroic, brave, and most importantly a huge romantic figure. During the Middle Ages, St. Valentine become the most popular saint in France and England.
Many people believe that Valentine’s Day was set on February 14 because that’s when St. Valentine was killed (this mostly likely happened around A.D 270). Other individuals believe that Christians put St. Valentine's feast day in February to “Christianize” the pagan celebration of Lupercalia (fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture). People celebrating this festival had some odd practices, one being that women would write their name on a piece of paper and put it in an urn, then the young bachelors of the city would choose a name out of the urn and be paired with the women for a year. Most of the pairs led to marriage, so maybe it was a big success.
Who is Cupid? Cupid, who is seen on cards, is a naked angel baby that shoots arrows at
two people to fall in love. The Roman god Cupid sprouts from Greek mythological specifically Eros (god of love). Eros is portrayed as a handsome, immortal man who plays with the emotions and feelings of gods and men using golden arrows and inciting love. When the Hellenistic period came along, Eros began to be portrayed as a big baby on Valentine’s Day cards. During the 18th Century, it was pretty common for friends and lovers to give hand-written letters to one another, but in the 1900's printed cards became the trend due to improvements in printing technology. Esther A. Howland, also known as “mother of Valentine’s Day” made the first of many printed Valentine's cards from "scraps" with real lace, ribbons, and colored pictures. Today, an average 145 million cards are sent each year for Valentine’s Day making it the second largest card-sending holiday of the year, second only to Christmas.
As February 14 draws near, watch out for Cupid's arrow, and be sure to celebrate with the one you love.
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