Valentine's Day

(Valentines- The cute little cards of hearts and flowers. Candies with massages of "I love you" and Be my Valentine". Cupids and arrows etc... Where does it all come from? Ever wonder? Or is this just one of the things you grew up doing and then teaching your children to do without ever knowing why...)

World Book Encyclopedia- Valentine's Day
"Roman festival Lupercalia- on February 15. To ensure protection from wolves. During this celebration young men struck people with strips of animal hide. Women gladly took the blows because they thought the whipping made them more fertile."

from..The Valentine and Its Origin by Frank Staff
"Sending a Valentine card on February 14 is no longer the serious matter it once was.
In Britain and America the majority of people who use this means of saying "I love you" do not only out of genuine sentiment but often for innocent amusement and have no idea that the saint's day they are celebrating is connected with ancient customs which can be traced back to pagan times.
In all countries where man has lived for countless generations superstitions and old customs become such a part of the life of the people that they are accepted without being questioned as to their reason or origins. Britain is rich in traditions and customs and because the history of North America is linked with Britain's some of these customs have been introduced into the U.S..."
"It is therefore easy to understand how the origins of customs dating to the time when the Romans occupied the British Isles are obscure. One of these ancient customs concerns a Roman priest who was cruelly martyred outside the gates of Rome close to where is today the bust Piazza Del Populo and we might well ask ourselves why English- speaking peoples in different parts of the world perpetuate the memory of Saint Valentine in the way they do. For Valentine, known to be a very chaste man, was never in his life concerned with cupids and hearts, the mating of birds, or with lovers.
Valentine, according to Alban Butler, in His Lives of the Saints, was: "A holy priest in Rome, who, with St. Marius and his family, assisted the martyrs in the persecution under Claudius 2. He was apprehended and sent by the Emperor to the Perfect of Rome, who, on finding all his promises to make him renounce his faith ineffectual, commanded him to be beaten with clubs, and afterwards to be beheaded, which was executed on the 14th of February, about the year 270. Pope Julius is said to have built a church near Ponte Mole to his memory, which for a long time gave name to the gate now called Porta Del Popolo, formerly Porta Valenti. The greatest part of his relics are now in the church of St. Draxedes.
It is obvious that there is nothing in this description to explain why he comes to be associated with our present day celebration of the day of his death, February 14 and can be stated at once that this connection of his name with that of love is purely accidental. Indeed, there is proof of other associations pertaining to Valentine which would seem at one time to have been quite as generally ascribed to him. During his lifetime it is said that he was subject to fits of epilepsy, so that after his death it was believed that, having experience of the disease, he would be the likely saint to take an interest in epileptic sufferers. In some parts of Germany, epilepsy used to be known as Valentine's sickness, and also as Veltin's Dance.
In spite of this refernce it was as the saint of lovers that Valentine was to become known......"

(Valentine's Day- can be traced directly to paganism. Originally the holiday was called Lupercalia, and obviously had nothing to do with St. Valentine or anything Christian, but was based upon sex and fertility. It is odd indeed that the day should be linked to St. Valentine at all. He died the death of a martyr, in 270 A.D., probably for being against the very kind of heathen practices that are related to by the holiday that he is remembered by.)