sabercat chronicle
"A PLACE FOR GREATNESS"
Valentine’s Day:
The Origin of America’s Love Holiday
-Natalie Leon
More than 65% of American’s celebrate Valentine’s Day exchanging flowers, a greeting card, candy, or a romantic dinner for two with the one they admire most. But, the general public don’t know how Valentine’s Day really came about and that is that it wasn’t always hearts & flowers. The genesis of Valentine’s Day is interesting nonetheless, while the origin of Valentine’s Day goes back to an Ancient Roman Fertility Festival held in mid-February by a Pagan Christian church and was called Lupercalia.
But who is Saint Valentine, the man behind the holiday? According to recent documents, Valentine was sentenced to death for performing marriage ceremonies in secret, after current Emperor Claudius II banned marriage believing that single men were better soldiers. After that, they say St. Valentine was killed in prison in an attempt to free other Christians where he was imprisoned and left behind the first ‘valentine.’ He addressed it to his jailer’s daughter, who often visited him in confinement. He then executed the letter with, “From your Valentine,” thus where the Valentine’s Day card was constructed from.
To begin the ancient festival, Roman priests would gather at the sacred cave where the infants Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, were placed. 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. Shockingly, Roman women welcomed the touch of the hides because it was believed to make them more fertile prior to the festival. Later in the day, according to legend, all the young women in the city would place their names in a bowl and the city’s bachelors would each select a name. These matches often ended in marriage. It wasn’t until the 1300’s that people started recognizing romance with V-day. Your journalism team hopes you enjoyed this snippet into the history of Valentine’s Day and we hope you had a happy Valentine’s Day Sabercats!