What is your ultimate date?
Ever wondered where it all started?
According to history.com, the history of Valentine’s Day and the story of its patron saint is somewhat shrouded in mystery.
What can be confirmed, though, is the fact that February has always been considered the month of love and romance.
Also, St Valentine’s Day presents elements of both Christian and Roman traditions.
The Catholic Church recognises at least three different martyred saints named Valentine or Valentinus.
One of these suggests that Valentine had served as a priest 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, realising 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. Still, others insist that it was St Valentine of Terni, a bishop, who was the true namesake of the holiday. He, too, was beheaded by Claudius II outside Rome.”
Other stories suggest that Valentine may have been killed for attempting to help Christians escape Roman prisons.
Yet another legend suggests that Valentine, while imprisoned, send himself a “Valentine” greeting after he fell in love.
It is said that he, just before he died, signed a letter to this love: “From your Valentine.”
Now, how often have you used these exact words on a card or a note accompanied by a small gift?
There are, of course, those who believe that Christianity uses Valentine’s Day to Christianise the pagan celebration of Lupercalia.
“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 were believed to have been cared for by a she-wolf or lupa.
“During a somewhat brutal ritual, the priests would sacrifice a goat for fertility and a dog for purification. They would 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.
“Roman women welcomed the touch of the hides, because it was believed to make them more fertile in the coming year. Then later in the day, 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 relationships often ended in marriage.”
Where does Cupid fit onto all of this?
Cupid, represented by an infant holding a bow and arrow, was acknowledged by the Greeks as Eros, the god of love.
In circa 700 BC, Hesiod, an author, described Eros in Theogony as one of “the primeval cosmogonic deities born of the world egg”.
Other accounts of Eros describe him as “the son of Nyx and Erebus; or Aphrodite and Ares; or Iris and Zephyrus; or even Aphrodite and Zeus – who would have been both his father and grandfather.”
Ancient Greek mythology tells the story of Cupid shooting his golden arrow at Apollo, who then fell in love with a nymph called Daphne.
The Cupid story also presents instances of jealousy and anger.
Interestingly, Cupid has also been portrayed as a playful and somewhat mischievous child – and an immortal attracted to both man and the gods.
Be that as it may, Cupid was eventually gifted with immortality.
Famous quotes on love
Did you know that Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets on love and beauty?
Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies. – Aristotle
Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage. – Lao Tzu
My bounty is as boundless as the sea, my love as deep; the more I give to thee, the more I have, for both are infinite. – William Shakespeare
If I had a flower for every time I thought of you… I could walk through my garden forever. – Alfred Tennyson
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. – Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Young love is a flame; very pretty, often very hot and fierce, but still only light and flickering. The love of the older and disciplined heart is as coals, deep-burning, unquenchable. – Henry Ward Beecher
Age does not protect you from love. But love, to some extent, protects you from age. – Anais Nin
Life has taught us that love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outward in the same direction. – Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Conclusion
Did you know that Pope Gelasius was the first in 496 AD to declare the feast of St Valentine’s Day a public holiday?
George Read said, “There is only one happiness in this life, is to love and be loved.”
Who is your Valentine and how will you celebrate Valentine’s Day this year?
Source: History.com
