Happy Valentine's Day

Today is Valentine's Day.  In case you are looking for the Second Thursday Tutorial, it is late for a very specific reason.  Please check back next Tuesday to see why I've postponed it.  It's definitely worth the wait.

Valentine's Day has a complicated and complex history.  Let's see what the experts tell us.

According to Valentine's Day.org:

There are various legends associated with the festival along with the belief that birds began to mate from this day. 

Historians trace the origin of Valentine's Day to ancient Roman Empire. It is said that in the Rome of ancient times people observed a holiday on February 14th to honor Juno - the Queen of Roman Gods and Goddesses. The Romans also regarded Juno as the Goddess of Women and Marriage. On the following day, February 15th began the fertility festival called 'Feast of Lupercalia'. The festival of Lupercalia was celebrated to honor the Gods Lupercus and Faunus - the Roman God of Agriculture besides the legendary founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus.

History.com has a slightly different take on the event:

St. Valentine’s Day is named for a Christian martyr and dates back to the 5th century, but has origins in the Roman holiday Lupercalia.

Hello Giggles may have the most bizarre answers:

While the romantic holiday inevitably becomes about cards, candy, and dinner reservations, the history of Valentine’s Day is a far cry from what we celebrate today. Much of the February celebration’s origins are unknown, but what we do know proves that human culture is fascinating — and not always romantic.

Before St. Valentine, there was an ancient Roman festival called Lupercalia. Reports vary, but NPR reported in 2011 that men would sacrifice a goat during this celebration in mid-February. Then, they’d whip women with the skins of the dead animals.

Even though this sounds pretty horrifying, women were apparently into this type of behavior.

Apparently, women thought this behavior would make them more fertile.   If this was not bizarre enough, there was also, according to Hello Giggles a lottery:

Men would draw women’s names from a vase to then be sexually partnered up with them for the rest of the feast. Sometimes, the couple would stay together after the celebration and marry. Eventually, Christians took out the pagan practices of Lupercalia and adapted it into a more familiar version of the holiday.

When the Christians intervened, St. Valentine got involved — but even the history of St. Valentine is unclear. As the Franciscan Media reported, the Catholic Church removed St. Valentine’s Day as an official feast day in 1969 due to its unclear origins. It is believed, though, that there were two men by the name of Valentine who were both executed by the Roman emperor Claudius II.

The Valentine whose myth gets the most attention is that of the Roman priest Valentine who was executed on February 14th in the third century.  The tale states that Emperor Claudius put an end to marriages in Rome because he thought men weren’t joining the army due to having families. Valentine allegedly disobeyed this order and married young couples in secret. He was punished by being beheaded on the day we now celebrate as Valentine’s Day.

History.com confirms this about St. Valentine.  Valentine's Day.org provides yet another theory:

According to another version of legend Valentine was killed because he attempted to help Christians escape from the Roman prison as they were being tortured and beaten there. Yet another popular version of the legend states that while in prison Valentine or Valentinus fell in love with jailer's daughter who visited him during confinement. Before his death Valentine wrote a farewell letter to his sweetheart from the jail and signed ‘From your Valentine'. The expression became quite popular amongst love struck and is still very much in vogue. 

By the Middle Ages, Valentine assumed the image of heroic and romantic figure amongst the masses in England and France. Later, when Christianity spread through Rome, the priests moved Lupercalia from February 15 to February 14. Around 498 AD, Pope Gelasius declared February 14 as St. Valentine's Day to honor the martyr Valentinus and to end the pagan celebration.  

Despite the myths about the romantic Roman priest, one historian credited Geoffrey Chaucer for connecting Valentine’s Day to love. The New York Times noted that Jack B. Oruch, who died in 2013, wrote that he had found no connection between Valentine’s Day and love until Chaucer wrote the poems “Parlement of Foules” and “The Complaint of Mars.”

That wasn’t until the late 14th century.  After Chaucer, other writers romanticized the holiday — like the very notable William Shakespeare. But in the 20th century, Hallmark changed the holiday as humans knew it, offering valentines in 1913 before mass producing them in 1916.

Although it was not created by card companies as some people believe, Valentine Day's roots obviously lie in ancient Rome.  And if you, like me, don't care for the commercialism this day has created, it is still better than being whipped by a bloody goatskin.

I hope your Valentine's Day is filled with love, caring, and sharing (and no bloody goatskins).  Thanks for visiting.  Bleubeard, Squiggles, and I send our love.