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Wednesday, February 3, 2010

The Origins of Valentine's Day

When I was in the 'third grade' I attended my first Valentine's Day event. It was the first year that I was enrolled in school in the United States, after moving from England, and I remember having to take a shoebox to school. I soon learned we were decorate these shoe boxes with paint, construction paper and pink and red heart shaped doilies, after cutting a little slot in the top for our 'valentines'. We were instructed to make sure we had a card for everyone in the class, mine had Casper on them, I am sure of it, and on the anticipated day, we would all play postman as we walked around the class putting the cards into the decorated boxes. Then we would sit and open them, smiling at all of our 'truly yours' and 'be mines' while indulging in lard and sugar frosted cupcakes brought by the 'class Mom'.

To the masses, Valentine's Day evokes thoughts of chocolate, flowers, romance, cards, and cherubic angels shooting us with arrows. I also understand there are special diamonds, jewelry, lingerie and secret indulgences you can buy your 'valentine'….but when did all the madness, attributed to this day, begin? I don't know about the rest of you, but I started seeing Valentine's Day displays in the stores the day after they cleaned out most of the Christmas crap, thinking to myself "Hey don't throw that Christmas stuff out, we could use it for Valentine's Day, after all it is red and white..!" Come to think of it... St. Valentine does look an awful lot like St. Nicholas, but I digress.


Sadly today's society views Valentine's Day as more of an obligation ~ forced upon the masses as a whole, telling us we better recognize our 'sweetheart' with flowers and fluff or they will resent us for the rest of the year. I just saw something on MSN today '10 Days Left to make sure you are not in the Dog House'…or something to that effect. I mean, seriously folks, come one, when did it turn to this? I am not quite sure how it became such an obligation… or expectation …. but personally I blame it on Hallmark (the bastards!)

Valentine's Day originated from pagan customs of Ancient Rome in 300-400 B.C, where on February 14th and 15th the Romans celebrated Lupercalia. During this festival they practiced the ritual of the sacred sexual union, the Heiros Gamos, on February 14th, to honor Juno Fructifier, Queen of the Roman gods and goddesses as well as goddess of marriage.

As part of this celebration, maiden's names in were placed in boxes, I am sure without the pink and red doilies. These "love notes" were called "billets." A young man would draw a name and the maiden was his sex partner for the coming year commencing in March until the next February celebration. The matches were primarily for the sexual union of the Hieros Gamos but it was not unusual for the pairings to end in marriage. The couples who were matched together would be considered partners for the coming year, commencing in March, and would last until the next February celebration.

On February 15th, the Ides of February, the Romans celebrated Luperaclia, honoring Lupercal, the wolf god. Additionally they honored Faunus, god of fertility as well as Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome who were as legend states, raised by a she-wolf. The Festival of Lupercalia involved priests and Vestal Virgins (don't care much for the priests but vestal virgins are cool). The Luperci priests would go to a grotto dedicated to Lupercal, the wolf god, located at the foot of Palatine Hill.

The men would sacrifice a goat, don its skin, and run, walk and dance around the Palatine Hill to purify it while whipping young maidens with a goat skinned thong called a "februa" ~ an act which was supposed to ensure fertility. The act of such lashings or whippings was known as februatio...both this word and the word februa come from the Latin meaning "to purify." The Romans believed that the middle or the 'ides' of the month was when that month's life force was at its peak which gave them an excuse to party and perform the sacred rite of sexual union with the added effect of purifying the women from curses, bad luck and infertility by flagellating them with the februa. Hmmmmmmmm, interesting! It is all starting to make sense now.

Regardless of its origins, today Valentine's Day is a highly over-commercialized western celebration. The Greeting Card Association estimates that some billion valentines are sent per year. If you are single on this day, remember it only lasts for 24-hours, and most of the people receiving Valentine's tokens, gifts or flowers from their 'loved ones' are doing so out of obligation, threats, and the over-commercialization of a day that Hallmark rakes in the $$$- cha-ching!!! I am sure that by this time next year we will all be decorating our V-Day Trees ~ with hearts, flowers and cupids ~ while sitting on St. Valentine's lap telling him what we want (or expect), fighting for the last box of chocolates or bunch of roses in the grocery store – knocking someone down in an effort to grab them out of their hands – all the while thinking LOVING thoughts.

Personally, I think Lupercalia sounds like more fun!

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