[Vision2020] History of Saint Valentine's Day

[Tom Hansen]

Greetings Visionaires -

As a matter of curiosity I googled "History of Saint Valentine's Day" and
found the following at
http://www.pictureframes.co.uk/pages/saint_valentine.htm: 

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The History of Saint Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day started in the time of the Roman Empire.  In ancient Rome,
February 14th was a holiday to honour 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 15th, began the Feast of Lupercalia.

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
festival 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 partners for the duration of the festival with the
girl whom he chose.  Sometimes the pairing of the children lasted an entire
year, and often, they would fall in love and would later marry.

Under the rule of Emperor Claudius II Rome was involved in many bloody and
unpopular campaigns.  Claudius the Cruel was having a difficult time getting
soldiers to join his military leagues.  He believed that the reason was that
roman men did not want to leave their loves or families.  As a result,
Claudius cancelled all marriages and engagements in Rome.  The good Saint
Valentine was a priest at Rome in the days of Claudius II.  He and Saint
Marius aided the Christian martyrs and secretly married couples, and for
this kind deed Saint Valentine was apprehended 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 the 14th day of February,
about the year 270.  At that time it was the custom in Rome, a very ancient
custom, indeed, to celebrate in the month of February the Lupercalia, feasts
in honour of a heathen god.  On these occasions, amidst a variety of pagan
ceremonies, the names of young women were placed in a box, from which they
were drawn by the men as chance directed.

The pastors of the early Christian Church in Rome endeavoured to do away
with the pagan element in these feasts by substituting the names of saints
for those of maidens.  And as the Lupercalia began about the middle of
February, the pastors appear to have chosen Saint Valentine's Day for the
celebration of this new feast. So it seems that the custom of young men
choosing maidens for valentines, or saints as patrons for the coming year,
arose in this way.

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Take care, Moscow, and have a Happy Valentine's Day.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

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Work like you don't need the money.
Love like you've never been hurt.
Dance like nobody's watching.

- Author Unknown
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