By: Angelika Twinkle Mae A. Auro
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| Photo By: History.com |
Every year on February 14th, the world celebrates Valentine's Day. In the name of St. Valentine, chocolates, flowers, and presents are exchanged between loved ones. Although this holiday is associated with love, its origins aren't precisely romantic.
Many of us accept practices without really scrutinizing them. Valentine's Day is now seen by the majority of people as merely a secular day of love, but most people aren't sure why we do it, or why it's called "Valentine's Day."
The possessive of a singular noun is usually constructed by adding an apostrophe and the letter s. On "Valentine's" Day, we can see that the 14th of February is dedicated to St. Valentine because of its possessive form.
The question is, who is this enigmatic saint, and how did he come to be connected with such a rite?
There are many tales surrounding the life of Saint Valentine. One of the most common is that Saint Valentine is claimed to have been a priest in Rome around the third century, and when Emperor Claudius II declared that single men made better soldiers than those with families and spouses, he prohibited young soldiers from marrying.
In the name of love, Valentine began arranging secret marriages for young couples in response to the injustice that was being done to young males. When the Emperor heard of Valentine's defiance, he ordered his execution.
According to another legend, Saint Valentine was imprisoned and was said to fall in love with the jail guard's daughter and that he wrote a letter for her. At the bottom of the letter, he wrote, "From your Valentine". Later, Saint Valentine and the jailer's daughter were both beheaded on February 14. Many suggest that Valentine grew in popularity over time, and couples all over the world began to celebrate Valentine's Day as a day of love on February 14.
Despite the controversy surrounding Valentine's life, the Catholic Church proclaimed him a saint and recorded his martyrdom on February 14 in Roman Martyrology.
Other historians have a different belief of Valentine's Day's origin. They claim that Valentine's Day is a blend of Christian and ancient Roman customs. That its history includes a bloodbath and terror. They assume that the holiday is linked to a Christian attempt to replace the Roman holiday of Lupercalia, which fell on February 15th. Thus, while some believe that Valentine's Day is celebrated to commemorate the anniversary of Valentine's death, others accept that it is celebrated on the 14th of February to "Christianize" the pagan Lupercalia festival.
Lupercalia has been traced back as far as the 6th century B.C. and was an ancient pagan festival held each year in Rome on February 15. It was a violent and sexually charged festival that included animal sacrifice and random mating in the hopes of preventing infertility.
The event began with the sacrifice of one or more male goats and a dog which are animals with symbols of strong sexuality. Luperci, a group of Roman priests are the ones who carried out the sacrifices. Consequently, It was dedicated to promoting fertility and male-female casual mating through a lottery.
Valentine's Day is a holiday celebrated particularly among those in romantic relationships. It has been practiced around the world as a custom. Because it has been a tradition, people celebrated it worldwide regardless of its origin.
Although the truth underlying the Valentine legends is unclear, all of the stories highlight Valentine's popularity as a romantic figure.