| Valentines Day was originally created as a substitute. In the fifth
century A.D., the Catholic Church attempted to be rid of a common pagan
fertility rite that the Romans had been taking part in since the fourth
century B.C. Every year the Romans celebrated a young man’s rite of passage
to the god Lupercus by holding a lottery in mid-February. The names of
willing teenage girls were placed in a box and drawn at random by teenage
men. By this lottery a young man was assigned a young woman companion for
their mutual pleasure (often sexual) for the duration of a year. After
the year was up another lottery was held.
As Christianity spread and the leaders of the Church resolved to
do away with this practice by picking a “lover’s” saint to replace the
god Lupercus. They picked Valentine, a bishop who had been martyred in
the third century A.D. for the cause of love.
In 270 A.D. Emperor Claudius had issued an edict forbidding marriage
because believed that married men made poor soldiers, not wanting to leave
their families to go to battle. Valentine, bishop of Interamna, disagreed
with the emperor and invited young lovers to come to him in secret to be
married.
When Claudius found that he was performing secret marriage ceremonies,
he was incensed. He had Valentine seized and brought before him. When Valentine
refused to change his views and renounce Christianity, he was put in prison
to await execution. In February of 270, Valentine was clubbed, stoned,
and then beheaded.
Tradition tells us that while Valentine was in prison he corresponded
with those under his care by sending little letters and love notes to those
in his parish. It is also believed that while he was in prison the bishop
fell in love with the blind daughter of the jailer, Asterius and that God
enabled him to miraculously restore her sight. Tradition tells us that
his farewell message to her contained a closing that transcended time:
“From Your Valentine”.
 In A.D. 496,
Pope Gelasius outlawed the Lupercian festival, but cleverly retained the
lottery, because he was aware of the Roman’s love for games of chance.
But now instead of names of women in the box, there were placed names of
saints. Men and women both picked slips of paper and for the upcoming year
they were expected to imitate the life of the saint whose name they had
drawn. And St. Valentine was advanced as the overseer of the whole thing.
It took some time for this new tradition to take hold, but eventually,
more and more Romans relinquished the Lupercian festival and replaced it
with St. Valentines Day.
Traditionally, mainly due to the Lupercian lottery, mid-February
was a Roman time to meet and court prospective mates. While the Lupercian
lottery was replaced, most Roman young men were not totally satisfied with
the lottery of saints’ names and the new lottery did not last long. Instead
the young men instituted a custom of offering women they admired and wished
to court handwritten greetings of affection on February 14. The cards became
known as Valentine’s Day Cards. |
