The 14th day of February is famously known as Valentine’s Day, a contemporary holiday designated as a day to celebrate love and romance. It is a time when lovers could express their affection through bouquet of roses, sweet chocolaty confections and well-written love notes. All the symbols of love contain vestiges from ancient pre-Roman rituals to the customs of Victorian England.
The History of Valentine’s Day
Lupercalia
The earliest account of a festival that took place around this date was an ancient Roman festival called Lupercalia that last from February 13 to 15, and culminate on the 15th. It is an ancient festival under the superintendence of Luperci priests that worship a deity who protects herds from wolves and the legendary she-wolf who nursed Romulus and Remus, mythical founders of Rome.
Lupercalia was a very ancient festival, possibly subsumed another ancient pre-Roman pastoral annual celebration called Februa, observed in the city of Rome held on the same date, February 15, to avert evil spirits and purify the city, releasing health and fertility. This earlier spring related ritual mayhap an earlier-origin of spring cleansing tradition, that have the same idea of purification or purging, which also gave the month its name, February or Februarius. The festival was also associated with the god Faunus, bestower of fruitfulness on fields and flocks.
There have been insidious remarks about this ancient Pagan festival slyly suggestive it’s all about barbaric custom in comparison to other contemporary religious rituals. As during this celebration priests, not men as some asserted, would sacrifice a goat, for fertility, and a dog, for purification. They would then strip the goat’s hide into strips, not into thongs or whip, again as claimed by some, if it was a thongs or whip would it be similar one used by penitent Christians for self-flagellation- as the practice of mortification of the flesh. The dip the strips of hide into the sacrificial blood and milk, then and ran around a boundary, gently slapping, not striking, both women and crop fields with the goat hide, for fruitfulness – fertility for women and good harvest for crops. In Plutarch’s description of Lupercalia, he cited that many women purposely get in the way present their hands to be struck, believing that the pregnant will have a good delivery and the barren to pregnancy [2].
The festival also included a ritual that had a bit more relevance to love and marriage, a matchmaking lottery, according to legend, all the single women in the city would place their names in a big urn in which single men each drew or choose a name and paired as a couple would then be together for the duration of Lupercalia or longer if it is a good match. In another legend, the duration would be for a year. These matches often end in marriage and eventually offspring, just like the wishful ideas of love and romance.
St. Valentine’s Day
Lupercalia survived the initial rise of Christianity and but was outlawed, as it was deemed pagan and unchristian. In 494 CE, the Catholic Christian church under Pope Gelasius I appropriated the form of rite as the Feast of Purification. Another narrative indicates it was in 496 CE, that the same pope declared February 14 to be St. Valentine’s Day and replaced Lupercalia. The declaration was to honor Saint Valentine’s martyrdom.
There are several Christian martyrs named Valentine, or Valentinus, that the Catholic Church acknowledged to be the canonized priest whom the holiday was named. Here are different accounts recognized by the Roman Catholic Church:
According to legend about 270 BCE under Emperor Claudius II Gothicus, a priest signed a letter “from your Valentine” to his jailer’s daughter, whom he had befriended and healed from blindness. A further account suggested that Valentine may have been killed attempting to help Christians escape harsh Roman Prisons, where they were often beaten and tortured. Similar to the account above, the imprisoned and death-sentenced Valentine signed a letter addressed to his jailer’s daughter, whom he fell in-love, in which sending the first “valentine” greetings…”From your Valentine,” an expression that is still in use today.
Another story suggested on a different crime, in which the priest tried to convert Roman Emperor Claudius II, who had him executed in a rather gruesome way, beaten, stoned and then beaded. Then, there is the account of a different occupational title, that rather being a priest, St. Valentine of Terni was a bishop, but some believed these two men were the same person.
The most common legend states that in 269 CE the Roman Empire, under Emperor Claudius II, was experiencing massive turmoil at the time. Dubbed the ‘Crisis of the Third Century’ by scholars, this period saw the empire divide into three competing states, with the threat of invasion all around. With the Roman Empire hanging by a thread, Claudius needed all the brazen war power he could get. Claudius made the unpopular decision to ban marriage among young people, believing that unmarried soldiers fought better than married soldiers. St. Valentine defied the emperor‘s orders and secretly married couples, as he believed marriage to be a God-given sacrament. A different version was he secretly married couples to spare the husband from war. Whatever the real reason maybe, Valentine was eventually found out and imprisoned. While in prison, he had been passing notes, hence some claimed it may have come about the passing of Valentine notes or love notes.
Some believe St. Valentine to have been either executed or interred on February 14, which probably around 270 CE. Although the truth behind the Valentine legend is murky and tainted with embellishments, the stories emphasize to make him appeal as a sympathetic, heroic and most importantly romantic figure. It is for this reason that most believe his commemoration day is associated with love. With that padded reputation he would become one of the most popular saints in England and France.
Valentine’s Day
Similar to Saturnalia that has been “Christianize” into Christmas; an all powerful religious authority did the same to an ancient pagan Roman feast of Lupercalia This annual spring celebration observed purification rituals to bring bounty of fruitfulness and fertility. And it was not until much later, however, that the day became definitively associated with love. As centuries later romantic authors like Geoffrey Chaucer and William Shakespeare helped seal the deal with references to the day in their works.
As in 14th century, St. Valentine’s Day came to be celebrated as a day of romance. Many pointed out that Geoffrey Chaucer who wrote a poem “The Parliament of Fowls,” to celebration of the engagement of Richard II of England and Anne of Bohemia, in 1382. This was the first time Valentine’s Day was connected with romantic love. The poem refers to St. Valentine’s Day as the day when birds choose their mates, although there is some dispute that Chaucer was actually referring to May 2, the saint’s day in the liturgical calendar of Valentine of Genoa. It was a common believed in the middle age France and England that February 14 was the beginning of bird’s mating season, which added the idea that the mid-February is a day for romance.
As in 14th century, St. Valentine’s Day came to be celebrated as a day of romance. Many pointed out that Geoffrey Chaucer who wrote a poem “The Parliament of Fowls,” to celebration of the engagement of Richard II of England and Anne of Bohemia, in 1382. This was the first time Valentine’s Day was connected with romantic love. The poem refers to St. Valentine’s Day as the day when birds choose their mates, although there is some dispute that Chaucer was actually referring to May 2, the saint’s day in the liturgical calendar of Valentine of Genoa. It was a common believed in the middle age France and England that February 14 was the beginning of bird’s mating season, which added the idea that the mid-February is a day for romance.
William Shakespeare also helped romanticize Valentine’s Day mentioning it in Ophelia’s lament in Hamlet. The oldest known valentine still in existence was a poem written in 1415 by Charles, Duke of Orleans, to his wife while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London following his capture at the Battle of Agincourt. Several years later, it is believed that King Henry V hired a writer named John Lydgate to compose a valentine note to Catherine Valois
In the 15th century, lovers had been sending to each other formal message or valentines, as well as, and handmade cards appeared. By the 17th century, printed cards were mass produced for Valentine’s day. In 1840s Esther A. Howland, the mother of Valentines,” began selling the first commercial valentines in the US. In 1913, Hall Brothers started printing out Valentine’s Day cards.
Final Thoughts
Ergo this is how we came about celebrating the 45th day of the Gregorian calendar, as the day of romantic love. In which the end-game and the common denominator had been the propagation of human species, close to the original purpose of the observation of similar ancient customs. Such multitude of traditions, festival and celebration, verify we are the one who designate meanings in our lives, and not the other way around. Therefore should not be limited by the outdated and unreasoned dictums but move forward with clear understanding.
As always enjoy Valentine’s Day or Lupercalia or Februa!
References
1. The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica. (2013). Encyclopedia Britannica. [Website]. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com
2. Plutarch. (1517). Plutarch’s Lives (Vol XII). Retrieved From http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Caesar*.html#61
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