Feb. 14, 2004, I had two things on my mind: Will I get a Valentine from my crush that has something cheesy like a cat with red hearts saying “you are the purrrfect,” and how long can I make those heart-shaped lollipops last? All I had ever known about this day was everyone got a little card, candy, and L-O-V-E was in the air.
Twelve years later, and Feb. 14, 2016, looks something like this: the color red for wine, and Galentine's Day for all the single ladies out there. The itinerary includes a bottle each of that red stuff along with a life-size pinata of a f**kboy, and if you don’t know what to bring your gal pals then here is a list of anti-Valentine’s gifts. Or maybe you can enjoy some fine dining with these Valentine’s day specials: Hooters’ “bring a shredded picture of your ex and get free wings” or Dairy Queen’s “Single’s Blizzard Treat” ... the list goes on.
Thank you, America, the land of the messed-up relationships! Just kidding, kind of. We are a creative bunch.
It seems like the traditional holiday about love has evolved into the holiday about loving yourself and hating on your past lovers.
Was the holiday ever about love? I realized that I really did not know anything about Valentine’s Day at the history. I mean, I knew something about this St. Valentine guy, but that’s about it.
So I decided to explore this mysterious holiday and here is what I found, thanks to a more credible source than Wikipedia, History.com:
1. A pagan festival in February
There is a theory that the Christian Church decided to “Christianize” the pagan fertility celebration of Lupercalia on Feb. 15. The festival celebrated the Roman god of agriculture, Faunus, and the Roman founders, Romulus and Remus. Here is where it gets weird: An order of Roman priests would gather at a sacred cave where Romulus and Remus were said to have been raised by the she-wolf Lupa. They would sacrifice a goat and a dog. Then, they would take the goat’s hides and cover them in sacrificial blood, before they would “gently” slap women and crop fields. The women, apparently, welcomed the slaps because they believed that the goat represented fertility and would help them be fertile in the coming years.
After the blood-slap fest, an ancient version of “The Bachelor” would take place.
Women would put their names in a big urn, and the city’s bachelors would select a name and be paired with that woman for the year, often resulting in marriages.
Lupercalia was deemed un-Christian and prohibited at the end of the 5th century when Pope Gelasius declared Feb. 14 as St. Valentine’s day.
2. But there is still bird-mating season and Valentine’s cards
In the Middle Ages in France and England, Feb. 14 was the start of bird-mating season and therefore was associated with romance.
Valentine’s greetings were popular as early as 1415, when Charles, Duke of Orleans, wrote a romance poem to his wife imprisoned in the Tower of London. Even King Henry V hired a writer to make a Valentine note to Catherine Valois.
In the 1700s Americans began to send handmade Valentines.
In the 18th century it was common in Great Britain for friends and lovers to exchange tokens of affection and handwritten notes. In the 1900s, cards began to be printed.
3 Who is Valentine? The three rumors behind him
The Catholic Church has three different saints named Valentine/Valentinus.
1. Valentine was a priest who performed marriages for young lovers in secret when King Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers and outlawed marriage. He was put to death for his illegal actions, but helped spread the love.
2. Valentine was killed when he helped Christians escape torturous Roman prisons.
3. An imprisoned Valentine sent a letter to his supposed captor’s daughter. He was in love with her and sent “from your Valentine.”
I was very surprised to hear some of the different theories of origin of this holiday and to compare them to what it has evolved into today. So, what will I be doing Feb. 14, 2016? Will it be free wings at Hooters, Galentine’s Day with the ladies, or waiting for my boyfriend to send me that “you are purrrfect” Valentine?
I choose all of the above. Yes, this weird holiday has many stories, and America tries to brand it and capitalize from it, but it’s a tradition I have always followed had and always will. It may be different each year, but it will be celebrated.
