Valentine’s day, Feast of Saint Valentine or Saint Valentine’s Day, whichever name suits it best or you like best. This holiday is celebrated around the world to commemorate Saint Valentine, who was a clergyman in a Roman empire who ministered to persecuted Christians, he had been martyred and had his body buried on the Via Flaminia on February 14th.
Some believe that he had been buried in the year A.D. 270 but there is no date set in stone. Other scholars claim that the Christian church may have placed St.Valentine’s feast in the middle of February in order to “Christianize” the pagan celebration of Lupercalia. Lupercalia is a pagan festival held each year in Rome on February 15. This celebration was very bloody, violent, sexual and usually involved some sort of animal sacrifice as well as a random match making of a random couple in order to ward off evil spirits. This celebration has been traced all the way back to the 6th century B.C.
Saint Valentine, the man of the day, has a very interesting history because no one really knows how he had lived his life. He had been killed in the 3rd century A.D for helping persecuted Christians as well as marrying Christians who had been in love. As the story goes, when Valentine was imprisoned he had tried to convert his captor to Christianity which had enraged Cladius who had been his captors and ordered that he reject his faith or he would be killed. Valentine had refused and was beheaded, but before he had been killed he had pinned a note to Julia, who was one of the girls that he had tutored while being imprisoned, that said, “From your Valentine ”.
Saint Valentine had a reputation as “patron of lovers’ ‘ which he had then became synonymous with romance. In the late 5th century A.D, Pope Gelasius I had eliminated the pagan celebration called Lupercalia and had declared February 14th as the day to celebrate the martyrdom of Saint Valentine instead. Many are unsure if this new holiday was celebrated with love and passion and in fact many Christians were warned to not celebrate the holiday because it is thought to be based on pagan rituals. Valentine’s day does use some of Lupercalia’s symbols like red that represents the blood sacrifices and white which represents wiping the blood clean off with milk which represents new life and procreation. For a majority of the population that celebrates the holiday, they no longer recognize Lupercalia as a legitimate celebration. Though there are many that celebrate Lupercalia and the traditions in private.
