|
|
|
Myths and legends: Valentine’s Day
Every February across the whole world candies, flowers, gifts and cards are exchanged between lovers, which is in remembrance of St. Valentine. There are many beliefs about this myth and its history is still cloaked in ambiguity. St. Valentine’s Day contains remnants of both Christian and ancient Roman Tradition.
Today, the Catholic Church recognizes at least three different saints named Valentine, all of whom were martyred. According to one myth, Valentine’s Day started at the time of the Roman Empire. In ancient Rome, February 14 was a public holiday to pay tribute to Juno. Juno was the Queen of the Roman gods and goddesses. The Romans also knew her as the goddess of women and marriage. The following day, February 15, began the Feast of Lupercalia. In ancient Rome, February was the official beginning of spring and was considered a time for purification. Houses were ritually cleansed by sweeping them out and then sprinkling salt and a type of wheat called ‘spelt’ throughout their interiors. Lupercalia was, according to another legend, a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, as well as to the Roman founders, Romulus and Remus.
To begin the festival, members of the Luperci, an order of Roman priests would gather at the sacred cave where the infants Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, were believed to have been cared for by a she-wolf or lupa. The priests would then sacrifice a goat, for fertility and a dog for purification. The boys sliced the goats hide into strips, dipped them in sacrificial blood and took to the streets, gently slapping both women and fields of crops with the goat hide strips. Far from being fearful, Roman women welcomed being touched with the hides because it was believed the strips would make them more fertile in the coming year. The lives of young boys and girls were strictly separate. However, one of the customs of the young people was name drawing. On the eve of the fiesta of Lupercalia the names of Roman girls were written on slips of paper and placed into jars. Each young man would draw a girl’s name from the jar and would then be her partner for as long as the festivities continued. Sometimes the pairing of these children lasted an entire year, and often they would fall in love and would later tie the knot. This Roman ‘lottery’ system for romantic pairing was later deemed un-Christian and was outlawed.
According to the second myth, St. Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. Under the rule of Emperor Claudius II, Rome was involved in many blood-spattered and ostracized campaigns. Claudius the brutal was having a difficult time getting armed forces to join his military leagues. He believed that the cause for this was that Roman men did not want to leave their families. As a result, Claudius cancelled all marriages and engagements in Rome. The good Saint Valentine was a priest in Rome in those days. He and Saint Marius secretly married couples, and for this kind deed Saint Valentine was detained and dragged before the Prefect of Rome, who condemned him to be beaten to death with clubs and to have his head cut off. He suffered martyrdom on February 14.
According to another legend, Valentine actually sent the first ‘Valentine’ greeting himself. While he was in prison, Valentine fell in love with the jailer’s daughter.
Many young people came to the jail to visit him and they threw flowers and notes up to St. Valentine’s window. They wanted him to know that they, too, believed in love. One of those young people was the daughter of the prison guard. Her father allowed her to visit him in the cell. Sometimes they would sit and talk for hours. She helped him to keep his spirits up. She agreed that he did the right thing by ignoring the Emperor and going ahead with the secret marriages.
On the day he was to die, he left a little note thanking her for her friendship and loyalty. He signed it, “Love from your Valentine.” That note started the custom of exchanging love messages on Valentine’s Day. It was written on the day St. Valentine died, February 14, 270 A.D. Now, every year on this day people think about love and friendship.
Since then it’s been a custom in almost all societies to express their emotions and love to their beloveds. The greeting card association mentions an estimated figure of one billion Valentines’ cards, which are sent across the world. This is the second largest card-sending holiday of the year — the first being Christmas. Women purchase approximately 85 per cent of all valentines’ cards.
Let’s come back to the history of Valentine’s Day. Still a few legendry facts are remaining. In some countries, if a young woman receives a gift of clothing from a young man and she keeps the gift, it means she will marry him.
Some people also believed that if a woman saw a robin-flying overhead on Valentine’s Day, it meant she would marry a sailor. If she saw a sparrow, she would marry a poor man and will be really happy. If she saw a goldfinch, she would marry a millionaire.
There was another myth about the apple stems. Think of five or six names of boys or girls you might marry, as you twist the stem of an apple, recite the names until the stem comes off. You will marry the person whose name you were saying when the stem fell off. Wow! Isn’t it amazing? That’s not all, if you cut an apple in half and count the seeds inside, you will also know how many children you will have.
Written valentines began to appear after 1400. The oldest “Valentine” in existence was made in the 1400’s and is in the British Museum. Paper valentines were exchanged in Europe where they were given in place of valentine gifts. Paper valentines were especially popular in England. Early valentines were made by hand with coloured paper, watercolours, and coloured inks
There were many different types of handmade valentines, including:
Acrostic valentines — with verses in which the first lines spelled out the loved one’s name
Cutout valentines — was made by folding the paper several times and then cutting out a lace-like design with small, sharp, pointed scissors
Pinprick valentines — made by pricking tiny holes in a paper with a pin or needle. Creating the look of lace
Theorem or Poonah valentines — designs that were painted through a stencil cut in oilpaper, a style that came from the Orient
Rebus valentines — verses in which tiny pictures take the place of some of the words.
Puzzle Purse valentines — a folded puzzle to read and refold. Among their many folds were verses that had to be read in a certain order
Fraktur valentines — had ornamental lettering in the style of illuminated manuscripts of the middle Ages
This was all about the history of the great Valentine’s Day. Now let’s enjoy!
|
|
|
|
