There is Nothing More Romantic...

Romance is in the air and with it comes the mushy-baby-Iloveyous. It is almost enough to drive any single girl crazy with a mixture of jealousy and irritation. It is bad enough the rest of the year with all the couples fawning over one another, but having an entire Hallmark holiday dedicated to hears and cherubs is almost unbearable.

I like to think of Valentine's day as the day that St. Valentine was beheaded. However, it really isn't the day that St. Valentine was killed. Amazingly there were two Valentine martyrs - Valentine of Rome and Valentine of Terni, both of which were killed and buried in some foreign city in Italy that I can't pronounce. These two people may be one and the same and have no romantic airs about them in their biographies. So why this holiday?

Wikipedia also says that a third man by the name of Valentine was martyred in Africa, but he isn't well known. So my beliefs surrounding the bloody day were incorrect. Today St. Valentine is recognized by the Catholic church as the Patron Saint of Lovers and Engaged Couples, with particular jurisdiction over the quarrels which arise between sweethearts. The patronage of Saint Valentine also extends to epilepsy, beekeepers, plague, greetings, travelers, and young people.
He is represented as birds, roses, a bishop with a crippled or epileptic child at his feet; a bishop with a rooster nearby; a bishop refusing to adore an idol; a bishop being beheaded; a priest bearing a sword; a priest holding a sun; and a priest bestowing sight upon a blind girl. Where do they come up with these??

It seems that our beloved Geoffrey Chaucer and his circle of peeps began to express their courtly love on February 14 in the Middle ages. The first recording of Volantynys day (the ancient English spelling of Valentine's day), was Chaucer's Parlement of Foules in 1382, which was written to honor the first wedding anniversary of King Richard II to Anne of Bohemia. How romantic when you are 13 years old.

It also appears that in Rome there was an ancient fertility festival on February 15, the day after Valentine's Day, called Lupercalia. I believe that many modern people still celebrate the festivities on Valentine's night. Wikipedia quotes with my add-ons in parentheses:

"Lupercalia, of which many write that it was anciently celebrated by shepherds, and has also some connection with the Arcadian Lycaea. At this time many of the noble youths (today's youth don't seem that noble) and of the magistrates (should we allow this) run up and down through the city naked (I suppose this promotes fertility), for sport and laughter striking those they meet with shaggy thongs (that has to itch). And many women of rank also purposely get in their way, and like children at school present their hands to be struck, believing that the pregnant will thus be helped in delivery (give me an epidural), and the barren to pregnancy (isn't there more to becoming pregnant than being struck with shaggy thongs)."

I'm glad that we have progressed enough to not have to wear shaggy thongs and that we can afford clothes so we don't have to run around in the winter naked. We also have invetro-fertilization and don't have to present our undressed bodies to the masses to become pregnant.
The whole holiday gets better. Lupercalia comes from the Latin word lupus or wolf. Perhaps this is the same wolf that allowed Remus and Romulus suckle. There is even a cult that would go the Lupus wolf's evil den and sacrifice not just one goat, but two and a dog. The blood was then splattered in the streets of Rome to prevent the wolf from coming into the town and killing the livestock. Good thing this holiday was abolished by Pope Gelasius I in 492.

Shakespeare even mentioned St. Valentine's Day in Hamlet, when Ophelia says "Tomorrow is St. Valentine's Day.” Just melts your heart doesn't it.

So this probably doesn't tell you any more about what February 14 actually signifies and why we celebrate it. But one thing is for certain... there are two dead guys, a wolf, blood, and fertility that are involved in St. Valentine's Day. Happy Hearts day!