Valentine’s Day is said to be the sweetest and the most romantic day of the year, but history says otherwise. While people these days are celebrating the day of romance, the Romans may have celebrated a bloody and ¨jumbled day¨.
From around February 13-15, the Romans celebrated the feast of ¨Lupercalia¨(which was a festival/feast to purify the city). On this day the men supposedly sacrificed a goat and a dog, and then they would whip and slash the women with parts of the animals they had just killed. It was also said that ¨Young women would line up for the men to hit them because they thought it would make them fertile.¨ It was true that Valentine’s Day doesn’t only get jumbled, but also bloody.
Not only did all the craziness of the Lupercalia festival happen on that day when the Romans lived, but young men would also draw the names of women out of jars, and they would be ¨coupled up¨ for the duration of the Lupercalia or longer if the match was right.
The ancient Romans were also responsible for the name of our modern-day love. Emperor Claudius II executed two people on February 14 who were both named Valentine. Other stories suggest that one of the Valentines may have been killed for attempting to help Christians escape harsh Roman prisons, where they were often beaten and tortured. What a coincidence! Pope Gelasuis wanted to put off the Lupercalia, which was a great idea. But the festival was more of a conceptual interpretation of what it had once been. Noel Lenski, now a religious studies professor at Yale University, told NPR in 2011.”It was a little more of a drunken revel, but the Christians put clothes back on it. That didn’t stop it from being a day of fertility and love.”
Around the same time as the Lupercalia festival, the Normans celebrated what was called ¨Galatin’s Day¨. Gallatin was meant to be a ¨Lover of women¨. As the years went on, the holiday grew sweeter just like it is now.
Now, Cupid is often portrayed on Valentine’s Day as a naked baby launching arrows of love at unsuspecting lovers. But the Roman God, Cupid, has his roots in Greek mythology as the Greek god of love, Eros. Eros eventually did turn into the naked baby that launches arrows of love at unsuspecting lovers during these days!
Today this holiday is celebrated worldwide and very big in business! However, the day is a spoiled day for many. The celebration of Valentine’s goes on and it can be a holiday for getting flowers, and chocolate, and spending the day with your loved ones. But it can also be celebrated as a SAD (Single Awareness Day) by others.
