Valentine’s Day ~ Feb 14th: Introduction
Each year on February 14th, many people exchange cards, candy, gifts or flowers with their special “valentine.” The day of romance called Valentine’s Day is named for a Christian martyr and dates back to the 5th century, but has origins in the Roman holiday Lupercalia, (a festival held in ancient Rome on the 15th of February to promote fertility and ward off disasters).
VALENTINE HISTORY:
The Catholic Church recognizes at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom were martyred.
1. 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.
2. 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.
3. According to another 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 said 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, the 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 but was outlawed—as it was deemed “un-Christian”
At the end of the 5th century, 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.
TYPICAL VALENTINE’S DAY GREETINGS
Did you know that nearly 150 million cards are exchanged each Valentine’s Day, making Valentine's Day the second most popular card-sending holiday after Christmas?
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.”
VALENTINES GALORE:
Which St. Valentine the pope intended to honor remains a mystery: according to the Catholic Encyclopedia, there were at least three early Christian saints by that name.
Rather astonishingly, all three Valentines were said to have been martyred on Feb. 14.
Another Finding: The medieval English poet Geoffrey Chaucer may have invented Valentine’s Day
He often took liberties with history, placing his poetic characters into fictitious historical contexts that he represented as real. No record exists of romantic celebrations on Valentine’s Day prior to a poem Chaucer wrote around 1375.
In his work “Parliament of Foules,” he links a tradition of courtly love with the celebration of St. Valentine’s feast day–an association that didn’t exist until after his poem received widespread attention.
The poem refers to February 14 as the day birds (and humans) come together to find a mate. When Chaucer wrote, “For this was sent on Seynt Valentyne’s day / Whan every foul cometh ther to choose his mate,” he may have invented the holiday we know today.
SOME REASONS THE CHURCH DOES NOT CELEBRATE VALENTINE’S DAY:
As noted earlier, St. Valentine’s Day, as we know it today, contains vestiges of both Christian and ancient Roman tradition.
Therefore, It is deeply rooted in paganism
It has become a commercialized way for people to get caught up in the “Propaganda of Love”
People are celebrating a man named Valentine and not sure which one, b/c there is possibly 3 St Valentines.
Has become a now “TRADITION”
SO HOW DOES GOD WANT US TO EXPRESS OUR LOVE ?
GOD’s LOVE SCRIPTURES FOR US: (KJV)
1 Corinthians 13:4-8 “Charity suffereth long, …”
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world……”
Romans 5:8 “but God commendeth His love toward us …”
Romans 8:37-39 “Nay, in all things we are more….’
Galatians 2:20 “I am crucified with Christ…’’
I John 3:1 “Behold, what manner of love…”
Romans 13:8 “Owe no man any thing…”
Galatians 5:13 “For, brethren, ye have been called…”
Ephesians 4:2 “With all lowliness and meekness…”
1 Peter 1:22 “Seeing ye have purified your souls…”
1 John 4:7 ‘’Beloved, let us love one another…”
JEREMIAH 10:1 & 2
Hear ye the word which the Lord speaketh unto you, O House of Israel:
Thus saith the Lord, learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at
them.
This is a presentational study and all info can be found on the internet
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