Monday, February 14, 2005
My Funny Valentine
Well, it's that time of year again – a day of fun and romance for half the country, and cynical, grumpy depression for the others. Unlike Sweetest Day, which is a modern creation (though not really a "Hallmark holiday" – it was invented in 1922 in Cleveland to bring candy and cheer to orphans and shut-ins), Valentine's Day has a 1,500 year back story which is both bizarre, and kind of sweet.
To the best of our knowledge (a mix of legend and recorded history), Valentine was a third century priest in Rome during the reign of Claudius II. Believing married soldiers performed poorer than single soldiers, Claudius banned marriage for those fighting in his empire. Defiantly, Father Valentine performed marriages in secret to soldiers and their would-be wives. When this was discovered, Claudius had Valentine arrested.
Awaiting his fate in prison, Valentine fell in love with the blind daughter of his jailor, Asterius. According to legend, Valentine's faith helped heal the daughter, returning her sight. Just before his scheduled beheading, he wrote a handwritten goodbye to the girl, signed "from Your Valentine." After his death, he was sainted by the church.
In the fifth century, Romans still engaged in a festival honoring the god Lupercus, in which the names of young women were picked at random, assigned to young men as sexual slaves for a year. In an effort to "Christianize" the holiday (as was done with Christmas being placed on December 25th, formerly the pagan feast of the Son of Isis), the church initially tried to place names of saints into the "hat" instead of women, hoping each man would endeavor to emulate the saint they had chosen. This was a bit too much of a leap from the original holiday, and was undoubtedly unpopular, so the church attempted a compromise: instead of "winning" the women in a lottery, young men could court girls they desired by writing them handwritten notes of love. Pope Gelasius officially declared February 14th "St. Valentine's Day" in 498 A.D., and it's still celebrated all over the world.
Of course, to those without a valentine, the day will go down as "Black Monday". But at least the story of healing blindness out of faith and love is pretty cool.
Well, it's that time of year again – a day of fun and romance for half the country, and cynical, grumpy depression for the others. Unlike Sweetest Day, which is a modern creation (though not really a "Hallmark holiday" – it was invented in 1922 in Cleveland to bring candy and cheer to orphans and shut-ins), Valentine's Day has a 1,500 year back story which is both bizarre, and kind of sweet.To the best of our knowledge (a mix of legend and recorded history), Valentine was a third century priest in Rome during the reign of Claudius II. Believing married soldiers performed poorer than single soldiers, Claudius banned marriage for those fighting in his empire. Defiantly, Father Valentine performed marriages in secret to soldiers and their would-be wives. When this was discovered, Claudius had Valentine arrested.
Awaiting his fate in prison, Valentine fell in love with the blind daughter of his jailor, Asterius. According to legend, Valentine's faith helped heal the daughter, returning her sight. Just before his scheduled beheading, he wrote a handwritten goodbye to the girl, signed "from Your Valentine." After his death, he was sainted by the church.
In the fifth century, Romans still engaged in a festival honoring the god Lupercus, in which the names of young women were picked at random, assigned to young men as sexual slaves for a year. In an effort to "Christianize" the holiday (as was done with Christmas being placed on December 25th, formerly the pagan feast of the Son of Isis), the church initially tried to place names of saints into the "hat" instead of women, hoping each man would endeavor to emulate the saint they had chosen. This was a bit too much of a leap from the original holiday, and was undoubtedly unpopular, so the church attempted a compromise: instead of "winning" the women in a lottery, young men could court girls they desired by writing them handwritten notes of love. Pope Gelasius officially declared February 14th "St. Valentine's Day" in 498 A.D., and it's still celebrated all over the world.
Of course, to those without a valentine, the day will go down as "Black Monday". But at least the story of healing blindness out of faith and love is pretty cool.
