By: Michelle Carr
Valentine’s Day… this day often gets a lot of grief. It is said that it is just a day for greeting card companies, flower shops and candy stores to make some cash. A commercialized day, that is more about receiving the biggest Valentine, than love itself. Those who do not have a Valentine often shun the day. Even some that do, will say “I show my sweetheart every day that I love them, why do it more on one day because someone declared it a holiday?” Well good point there, but I have always felt there was more to it than that.
I was watching the movie Valentine’s Day recently, feeling ready for today, and Jennifer Garner’s character told a story that caught my attention. She was a teacher and was sharing the history of holiday with her class. This story caught my attention again and I wondered if it was true. So being the person that I am, I dove into research mode and hit the Internet. Apparently there are many stories about how Valentine’s Day was brought about. It seems as though it is almost as mythical as the stories of King Arthur and the round table.
From what I could find, it started with the Pre Roman Pastoral Festival called Lupercalia. This festival would run from February 13-15 and its celebration’s purpose was to ward off evil spirits and purify the city invoking health and fertility. The name of this month came from the festival Lupercalia Subsumed Februa. People would mark this festival by sacrificing dogs and goats to the god Lupercus, who was the god of shepherds. They would also offer cakes by vestals and woman who wanted to conceive would appear before a priest, who was dressed in goat skin, to be struck. The festival itself marked the founding of this god’s temple that was on February 15th. We now think of this time as the time of spring cleaning.
Later, Christian’s took this pagan holiday and using the stories of martyrdom that were perhaps told of a couple men who were named Valentinus, they Christianized it. The most popular myth, and the one I love the most, goes like this. It was war time and a law was passed where soldiers were not allowed to marry. This Saint Valentine chose to marry those for the sake of love. He also continued to minister to Christians, who at that time were being persecuted by the Roman Empire. He was caught and imprisoned. It is said, that there he healed the jailor’s daughter. And during his imprisonment, he continued to convert his guards and their families. Because of these actions, he was sentenced to death. The story goes that before his execution he wrote a letter to the jailor’s daughter and signed it Your Valentine.
I don’t know about you but that gives me warm fuzzys. I have always been one to argue for the sake of Valentine’s Day. I feel that even though you should indeed tell those you love that you love them every day, this day should still be special. For this day is the day we celebrate love and all that it means. This is the day that you can go stand on a mountain and shout your love of someone and you won’t be considered insane. This is the one day of the year that makes you feel brave enough to express those feelings for someone that you may have been afraid to share before. The day of love is a celebration of love not an obligation to go spend money. Because when it is really love than it is more about the feelings behind the gift that the gift itself. On this day it is perfectly acceptable to be crazy in love. So feel free to be crazy, my friends. Happy Day of Love.
Web source used: Wikipedia
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