Valentine's Day
February 14 is always Valentine’s Day. Heads up, lovebirds! Today, the holiday is celebrated with love, flowers, and chocolate, but how did this holiday get its start?
Although a Christian bishop named Valentine was martyred on February 14 in A.D. 271, Valentine’s Day has its origins in the Roman holiday Lupercalia.
Lupercalia was a fertility festival in honor of Lupa, the wolf who was said to have suckled Romulus and Remus (who went on to found the city of Rome) and dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture. This was the season to start sowing seeds and hope for a fertile year of crops.
WHERE DID VALENTINE’S DAY COME FROM?
The Roman festival involved drunk young men running through the streets naked, women being smeared in animal blood, and unusual fertility rites. Ever heard the dating phrase, “being hit on”? In this case, men literally hit on women by whipping them with the hides of the animals they had just sacrificed.
Apparently, many women were willing participants, lining up for the festival, believed this would make them fertile. Young men also drew the names of women from a jar. The couple would lie together during the festival, in an effort to conceive.
When the Roman Empire became Christian, it evolved into the feast of St. Valentine—who was martyred at this time. The church evolved the pagan rituals into a less bloody, raucous affair and attempted to tie the holiday to the saints. However, much of the love and romance of the day persisted
