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The lists of saints in the Catholic Church include at least three Saint Valentines who have been tortured. A legend says that St. Valentine lived in Rome and was a priest. At the time, Emperor Claudius II ruled that single men were better soldiers than married men, and therefore banned the marriage of young men, reports history.com.
To Valentine, such an imperial order seemed wrong, which is why he married people in secret. However, such activity by Valentine became apparent and he was sentenced to death. Not everyone agrees with this Valentine’s story: according to some, the real St. Valentine was the bishop of the city of Terni, who, by order of the emperor, was also beheaded.
Other stories tell that Valentine was murdered in an attempt to help Christians escape from Roman prisons where they were beaten and tortured. According to another legend, Valentine was imprisoned and fell in love with the daughter of the man who imprisoned him, who visited him in jail. Then Valentine sent the first Valentine’s Day greeting: a letter. In a letter sent before his death, it is believed that he signed the phrase used until now: “From your Valentine.”
Although all of these legends are vague, they mark Valentine as an empathetic, heroic, and most importantly, romantic figure. Perhaps due to this characteristic, St. Valentine was probably the most popular saint in Britain and France as early as the Middle Ages.
The pagan festival of Lupercalia
Although some believe that St. Valentine’s Day is celebrated in mid-February to mark the anniversary of St. Valentine’s death, and others say that the church chose this date to Christianize the pagan festival of Lupercalia. Held on February 15, the Lupercalia Festival was a fertility festival dedicated to Fauna, the god of Roman fields, forests, animals, as well as the discoverers of Ancient Rome, the twin brothers, Romulus and Remus. history.com.
At the beginning of the celebration, members of the Luperci Roman priestly order gathered near the sacred cave, where the Roman founders Romula and Remus were believed to be cared for by the wolf. The priests sacrificed a sheep, which symbolized fertility, and a dog, which symbolized purification. The priests soaked the goat’s fur in supposedly holy blood and went to the city, where they used this fur to sanctify women and crops.
The Romans not only did not fear such a ritual, but even enjoyed it: it was believed that it would help women to get pregnant faster. Later, according to legend, all the young women wrote down their names and put them in the urn. The men of the city chose names and for years they became partners with the woman whose name they chose, and these friendships usually ended in marriage, he writes. history.com
Valentine’s Greetings Story
The pagan festival of Lupercalia supported the spread of Christianity, but at the end of the 5th century Pope Gelasius banned it for not being Christian and proclaimed it on February 14. Valentine’s Day. This day soon became a celebration of love. In the Middle Ages, especially in France and Great Britain, February 14 was believed to be the beginning of the mating season for birds, further leading to the recognition of February 14 as a day of love. For the first time, St. Valentine’s Day is mentioned in literature in 1375 in Jeffrey Choser’s poem The Parliament of Birds.
Valentine’s Day greetings were popular in the Middle Ages, although written greetings began only about 1,400 years ago. The oldest known greeting is a poem written by Charles, Duke of Orleans. In 1415, the Duke, imprisoned for the Battle of Agincort, was imprisoned in the Tower of London, from where he wrote a greeting to his beloved. This letter is still kept in the London Library. It is believed that a few years later, King Henry V also hired a writer who would create St. Valentine’s Greetings to his beloved Catherine Valua.
Who is Cupid?
On Valentine’s Day postcards, Cupid is often depicted as a naked little angel shooting arrows at lovers who still don’t understand anything. The roots of the Roman god Cupid, however, begin with the Greek god of love, Eros. The appearance of this god in mythology has not yet been agreed: some say that Cupid is the son of Nike and Ereb, others believe that Cupid’s parents were Aphrodite and Area.
According to the Greek poets, Erot was a handsome and immortal man who played with the feelings of gods and people and used golden arrows to evoke charm and provoke disgust. It was only during the Hellenistic period that he began to be portrayed as the plump and mischievous young man we see him on Valentine’s Day postcards today.
Valentine’s Cards and Gifts
Valentine’s Day is now celebrated in many states, but the exchange of handwritten letters has been common since the 18th century. in the middle. As printing technology improved, postcards printed around 1900 gradually replaced handwritten greetings. Pre-made postcards have become an easy way to express your feelings, especially when you have avoided expressing them. The tightening of postal services also contributed to the growing popularity of postcards.
The exchange of handmade gifts was supposedly started by Americans around 1700, and around 1840 businessman Esther Howland was the first to start a massive Valentine’s gift trade. Valentine’s Day has become a declining holiday in terms of the number of postcards sent for Christmas alone: around 145 million postcards are sent during this holiday.
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