Valentine's Day
In today's world, at least where I live, February is the month for groundhogs, loads of snow, and Valentine's Day. Since I need to write about the history of something to do with February, and I don't have an affinity for either groundhogs or snow, Valentine's Day won out!
What is Valentine's Day? Why the preoccupation with the day? I asked my wonderful husband what he thought, and he told me that he was split three ways on the subject:
- We are a pretty sick society, if we have to designate one day out of the year to show the one we love our feelings;
- There's so much going on in the world, and our lives, that maybe we NEED that one day to go out of our way:
- A chance to score points with my honey. (that would be me!!!).
Other people have different ideas on the subject. Some feel that it is a conspiracy by Hallmark, for us to spend our hard-earned money. Interesting side note here - the first Valentine's Day card, according to legend, was sent by Charles, Duke of Orleans, to his wife, in the year 1415. He was imprisoned at the time in the Tower of London. The next one wasn't to be sent for more than 200 years! In 1667, an Englishman by the name of Samuel Pepys, sent a card to his wife. It is said that his card was the forerunner for modern Valentine's Day cards.
One of the better descriptions I've heard, is that Valentine's Day is a day to reflect on your relationship. To do away with the petty nonsense that can build up and start to create problems. Time to start anew. For me, I think of the holiday as something more for my children - a fun day. My parents would always get us a little something, and made it a special day for us. Looking back brings me happy memories.
Every year, a couple of weeks after New Year's, people start wondering what they are getting, and what they are going to give, for this February holiday. And how could we not? Hardly a week passes into the the new year, and already there are boxes of candy, garish in their red, pink, silver and gold wrappings, hundreds of different cards, and of course, the little statues of pigs, frogs, babies, cows, and whatever else there can be, with the requisite heart on it, to make it a suitable Valentine's gift, all for the taking. Oh, and let's not forget the many different varieties of flowers, in every imaginable hue of pink and red, to buy for your sweetie.
Is Valentine's Day, or Saint Valentine's Day, a "holiday"? That is, is there any religious meaning behind it? Is it anything more than a money-making day for the candy producers, florists, and card moguls? Once again, my curiosity got the better of me. Why Valentine's Day? What was it before Hallmark put its "mark" on it? And since I am the absolute lover of historical facts, I dug it up to share with you!
Most everyone believes that Valentine's day originated in 5th century Rome, as a tribute to St. Valentine, a Catholic bishop of the time. According to legend, Emperor Claudius had decided that wedded men made for a pretty bad soldiers and so he banned marriage in his empire. Meanwhile, Valentine, unbeknownst to Claudius, continued marrying the couples that came to him. Claudius was pretty mad, but hoped to get Valentine to convert to Paganism while incarcerated. At the same time, Valentine was trying to get Claudius to convert to Christianity!! Boy, would I like to have been a fly on those walls!
While in jail, Valentine fell in love with the blind daughter of the jailer. According to legend, his great love for her, along with his faith, miraculously healed her of her blindness. As it was, Valentine failed in his attempts to convert Claudius, and was ordered stoned and beheaded 270 AD. On his way to his execution, he wrote a goodbye message to his love and signed it, "From your Valentine". The phrase used on February 14th ever since.
I was pretty happy with this story, but decided to dig deeper - what Pagan roots are there to this festival, if any? Is it simply a Christian excuse for card-giving? The sexual nature of the day and the prevalence of spring and fertility traditions screams "No". What I found out was very interesting!
I take you back more than 800 years prior to the days of Claudius. The days of the ancient Pagan Romans. February was the month to honor Juno, queen of the Roman gods, and goddess of marriage and women. Juno symbolized, for the Roman women, the matronly qualities they desired. The protector of females during marriage preparation, childbirth, and the rearing of their children, Juno oversaw all these events. On the day after the Ides of February (the 13th), the orgiastic Februa Festival began in her honour, leading up to the Festival of Lupercalia (on the 15th).
According to one of the legends I came across, the night before the festival started, on the 14th, single Roman girls wrote their names on pieces of paper. These were put into a container, and the young single men drew out a piece of paper. The outcome of this ritual was that the girl whose name a young man picked would be his sexual companion during the festival week. This ritual was commemorating the young man's rite of passage, or manhood, to the god Lupercus. What an interesting way to expand the gene pool.
Mind you, considering the strait-laced attitude the Romans had towards their daughters, I'm not at all certain this is factual - it may represent a small period of time in their history, or maybe the Christians invented it as a way of showing how immoral the Romans were - such a pity.
The god honoured in the Lupercalia is unknown - theories tend to support Lupercus or Faunus as the most likely. Lupercus is the god of flocks and fertility, while Faunus is a slightly more civilized aspect of Pan, responsible for agriculture and divination. Where Pan is shown as a satyr, appropriate to his wildly sexual fertility status, Faunus is the faun. Quieter and gentler in nature, he is still capable of great wildness. |
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However, the rites of Lupercalia took place in the cave believed to have been used by the wolf that suckled the twins, Romulus and Remus, and involved a figtree, milk and wool. These are all symbols of female deity, not male, and the name itself lends support to the idea that this may be an ancient fertility rite in honour of some great female god associated with the wolf. Possibly her name was Lupa.
Lupercalia. Named for the wolves - the mythological founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus, were raised by a she-wolf, a "lupa" - this fertility ritual involved the slaughter of a dog and a goat by two naked young men, possibly priests, called Luperci. Their foreheads were them smeared with the blood and then cleansed with wool dipped in milk. After girding themselves with the goat skin, they then ran the boundary line of the city carrying thongs made from the freshly slaughtered skins which they used to strike women - thus gifting the recipient with fertility.
This particular ritual was also a purification, or februa, of the city and people. Februa is obviously where we get the name February. How very interesting that our every day life is filled with our early pagan influences!
Indeed, it was the young Mark Antony was a Luperci. It is said that at the Lupercalia he approached Caesar with a laurel wreath, as a symbol of Caesar's status as king. A few in the crowd applauded the gesture. Although, when Caesar wouldn't accept the gift, the crowd loudly showed their approval. This showed Caesar that the people did not support his status. That day, he showed his displeasure to the people, and took away their trubuneship! One month afterward, Caesar was assassinated.
Fast forward many, many years, to the days of the Christians - Pope Gelasius, in his quest to convert the Pagans to Christianity, wanted to do away with the festival. But he knew that it would be difficult to take away a day of relaxation and togetherness. So, he changed things. Instead of young women's names, the container held the names of Christian saints. Men and women drew from the box, and the goal was to try and emulate the saint for the rest of the year. Quite a change from picking your sexual companion! I can imagine that not everyone was pleased with the new changes.
In order to "clean things up", the Christian church decided that they needed someone to use to commemorate this day, and so chose Claudius's legendary Saint Valentine, who so nobly wed young couples, to be their poster boy for this new and improved - and let's not forget - non sexually charged, day.
But here we are, in the year 2005, and my valentine made me breakfast, which consisted of a pancake, egg and coffee. I will choose him to be my sexual companion until next valentines day, and possibly make him one of my special home made cards. He does seem to like those!
Hoping you all had a great Valentine's Day with your loved one.
Nokomis Dream,
Why aren't you covering religious festivals? I mean New Year's Day is a secular thing and not really relevant to us Pagans anyway - we celebrate the Celtic New Year at Samhaine. I enjoyed reading the tidbits you gave, but just wasn't sure of the relevance.
Kerrie
Merry Meet, Kerrie.
What I am currently doing is writing articles about the history of various holidays, religious or secular, throughout the year. The reason I chose to write about New Year's Day is because I wanted to educate people on the Pagan beginnings of the holiday. It is not a Christian holiday, but more of a "humanity" holiday. I personally felt that it was very interesting, the different way that people observe New Year's Day.
As for New Year's Day, January 1st, not being relevant to Pagans...I disagree with you. Not all Pagans observe the Celtic festivals. I refer you at this time, to our Calendar of Observations (linked below) for a listing of many of the Pagan festivals at the start of January.
There is a website you might find interesting - The Celtic New Year. Basically, the premise is that Samhaine was not the New Year of the Celts, but rather sometime between the winter solstice and early spring.
What you will find, in my articles, isn't about MY Pagan path, and it may not always be relevant to your Pagan path. Our goal, here at The Pagan Heart, is to educate our community about all beliefs. There will be mention of every religion at some point. What I am doing is researching the origins behind different holidays and their traditions. If we are blind to other faiths, and their beliefs, we are no better than those we feel persecuted by. I look forward to sharing my newfound knowledge with all of you. And please write back, with any more questions or concerns.
Blessed Be,
Nokomis
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