Valentine Day Myth

Valentine Day Myth

A festival held in honor of Lupercus was renowned February 15th. The festival was eminent as a spring festival. Their calendar was different at that time, with February falling in early springtime.

One of the customs of the young people was name-drawing. On the eve of the festival of Lupercalia the names of Roman girls were written on slips of paper and placed into jars. Each young man drew a poke. The girl whose name was chosen was to be his sweetheart for the year?

memoir has it that the holiday became Valentine's Day after a priest named Valentine. Valentine was a priest in Rome at the time Christianity was a modern religion. The Emperor at that time, Claudius II, ordered the Roman soldiers NOT to marry or become engaged.

Claudius believed that as married men, his soldiers would want to halt home with their families rather than fight his wars. Valentine defied the Emperor's decree and secretly married the young couples. He was eventually arrested, imprisoned, and build to death.

Valentine was beheaded on February 14th, the eve of the Roman holiday Lupercalia. After his death, Valentine was named a saint. As Rome became more Christian, the priests moved the spring holiday from the 15th of February to the 14th - Valentine's Day. Now the holiday honored Saint Valentine instead of Lupercus.

But, this is honest one side of the sage...

So, who was Saint Valentine and how did he become associated with this faded rite? Today, the Catholic Church recognizes at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom were martyred.

One memoir contends that Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he outlawed marriage for young men -- his chop of potential soldiers.

Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to form marriages for young lovers in secret. When Valentine's actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be set to death.

Other stories suggest that Valentine may have been killed for attempting to support Christians run harsh Roman prisons where they were often beaten and tortured.

According to one anecdote, Valentine actually sent the first 'valentine' greeting himself. While in prison, it is believed that Valentine fell in esteem with a young girl -- who may have been his jailor's daughter -- who visited him during his confinement. Before his death, it is alleged that he wrote her a letter, which he signed 'From your Valentine,' an expression that is detached in employ today.

Although the truth gradual the Valentine legends is unlit, the stories certainly emphasize his appeal as a sympathetic, bold, and, most importantly, romantic figure. It's no surprise that by the Middle Ages, Valentine was one of the most well-liked saints in England and France.