We do know that February has long been
celebrated as a month of romance, and that St. Valentine's Day, as we know it
today, contains vestiges of both Christian and ancient Roman tradition. But who
was Saint Valentine, and how did he become associated with this ancient rite?
The Catholic Church recognizes at least three
different saints named Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom were martyred. One
legend contends that Valentine was a priest who served during the third century
in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers
than those with wives and families, he outlawed marriage for young men.
Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued
to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When Valentine's actions were
discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death.
Other stories suggest that Valentine may have
been killed for attempting to help Christians escape harsh Roman prisons, where
they were often beaten and tortured. According to one legend, an imprisoned
Valentine actually sent the first "valentine" greeting himself after
he fell in love with a young girl--possibly his jailor's daughter--who visited
him during his confinement. Before his death, it is alleged that he wrote her a
letter signed "From your Valentine," an expression that is still in
use today. Although the truth behind the Valentine legends is murky, the
stories all emphasize his appeal as a sympathetic, heroic and--most
importantly--romantic figure. By the Middle Ages, perhaps thanks to this
reputation, Valentine would become one of the most popular saints in England
and France.
Origins
of Valentine's Day: A Pagan Festival in February
While some believe that Valentine's Day is
celebrated in the middle of February to commemorate the anniversary of
Valentine's death or burial--which probably occurred around A.D. 270--others
claim that the Christian church may have decided to place St. Valentine's feast
day in the middle of February in an effort to "Christianize" the
pagan celebration of Lupercalia. Celebrated at the ides of February, or February
15, Lupercalia was a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of
agriculture, as well as to the Roman founders Romulus and Remus.
To begin the festival, members of the Luperci,
an order of Roman priests, would gather at a sacred cave where the infants
Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, were believed to have been cared for
by a she-wolf or lupa. The priests would sacrifice a goat, for fertility, and a
dog, for purification. They would then strip the goat's hide into strips, dip
them into the sacrificial blood and take to the streets, gently slapping both
women and crop fields with the goat hide. Far from being fearful, Roman women
welcomed the touch of the hides because it was believed to make them more
fertile in the coming year. Later in the day, according to legend, all the
young women in the city would place their names in a big urn. The city's
bachelors would each choose a name and become paired for the year with his
chosen woman. These matches often ended in marriage.
Valentine's
Day: A Day of Romance
Lupercalia survived the initial rise of
Christianity and but was outlawed—as it was deemed “un-Christian”--at the end
of the 5th century, when Pope Gelasius declared February 14 St. Valentine's
Day. It was not until much later, however, that the day became definitively
associated with love. During the Middle Ages, it was commonly believed in
France and England that February 14 was the beginning of birds' mating season,
which added to the idea that the middle of Valentine's Day should be a day for
romance.
Valentine greetings were popular as far back
as the Middle Ages, though written Valentine's didn't begin to appear until
after 1400. The oldest known valentine still in existence today 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. (The greeting is now part of the manuscript collection of the
British Library in London, England.) Several years later, it is believed that
King Henry V hired a writer named John Lydgate to compose a valentine note to
Catherine of Valois.
Typical
Valentine's Day Greetings
In addition to the United States, Valentine's
Day is celebrated in Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, France and Australia.
In Great Britain, Valentine's Day began to be popularly celebrated around the
17th century. By the middle of the 18th, it was common for friends and lovers
of all social classes to exchange small tokens of affection or handwritten
notes, and by 1900 printed cards began to replace written letters due to
improvements in printing technology. Ready-made cards were an easy way for
people to express their emotions in a time when direct expression of one's
feelings was discouraged. Cheaper postage rates also contributed to an increase
in the popularity of sending Valentine's Day greetings.
Americans probably began exchanging hand-made
valentines in the early 1700s. In the 1840s, Esther A. Howland began selling
the first mass-produced valentines in America. Howland, known as the “Mother of
the Valentine,” made elaborate creations with real lace, ribbons and colorful
pictures known as "scrap." Today, according to the Greeting Card
Association, an estimated 1 billion Valentine’s Day cards are sent each year,
making Valentine's Day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year. (An
estimated 2.6 billion cards are sent for Christmas.) Women purchase
approximately 85 percent of all valentines.
Valentine
Traditions
Hundreds of years ago in England, many
children dressed up as adults on Valentine's Day. They went singing from home
to home. One verse they sang was:
Good morning to you, valentine;
Curl your locks as I do mine ---
Two before and three behind.
Good morning to you, valentine.
In Wales wooden love spoons were carved and
given as gifts on February 14th. Hearts, keys and keyholes were favourite
decorations on the spoons. The decoration meant, "You unlock my
heart!"
In the Middle Ages, young men and women drew
names from a bowl to see who their valentines would be. They would wear these
names on their sleeves for one week. To wear your heart on your sleeve now
means that it is easy for other people to know how you are feeling.
In some countries, a young woman may receive a
gift of clothing from a young man. If she keeps the gift, it means she will
marry him.
Some people used to believe that if a woman
saw a robin flying overhead on Valentine's Day, it meant she would marry a
sailor. If she saw a sparrow, she would marry a poor man and be very happy. If
she saw a goldfinch, she would marry a millionaire.
A love seat is a wide chair. It was first made
to seat one woman and her wide dress. Later, the love seat or courting seat had
two sections, often in an S-shape. In this way, a couple could sit together --
but not too closely!
Think of five or six names of boys or girls
you might marry, As you twist the stem of an apple, recite the names until the
stem comes off. You will marry the person whose name you were saying when the
stem fell off.
Pick a dandelion that has gone to seed. Take a
deep breath and blow the seeds into the wind. Count the seeds that remain on
the stem. That is the number of children you will have.
If you cut an apple in half and count how many
seeds are inside, you will also know how many children you will have.
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