Fact 6 : Valentine's day

 When you think of Valentines day... you may think of chocolates , flowers , and thousands of super markets covered in red, white and pink aisles. But have you ever wondered where Valentine's day originated ? or, Who was this holiday named after? Well, there are tons of versions that theorists argue to this day !

 One theory is that Valentine's day  originated as the pagan festival "Lupercalia". Lupercalia was a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture. This festival involved a sacrifice of a goat , for fetility and a dog , for purification. The goat's hide was used for strips that were dipped into the dog's blood . These were then used to slap women due to their belief that it would make them more fertile in the coming year. Later in that day , the young women's names were taken down in a urn and the city's men would choose a name and be paired with their chosen woman , which often led to marriage. However, this festival was deemed " un-Christian" . Thus, the theory that the Christian church may have decided to place St. Valentine's day in the middle of February in effort to " Christianize " the celebration of Lupercalia.

Another theory is that Valentine's day originated as a liturgical feast to celebrate the decapitation of a third-century Christian martyr , or multiple martyrs. There were several Christian martyrs named Valentine. One specifically, was imprisoned and sent the first "valentine" greeting after falling in love with his supposed jailer's daughter. Another story goes on to say that St. Valentine defied the emperor's orders and secretly married couples to spare the husbands from war. For this reason, this feast day is associated with love. There are many murky legends of these Valentines , however they all share a sympathetic , heroic , and romantic feel.

Who knew such a sweet and innocent holiday had its gory and sad legends behind it? Which fact has more credibility to it though...  In my opinion , I believe Valentine's day originates from the legends of the martyrs. Mostly because , of the amount of evidence there is laid out in ancient lives of these saints .Many ancient sources reveal there were many St.Valentines who died on Feburary 14th , roughly around the the reign of Roman emperor Claudis Gothicus in 269-270 A.D."How do we know this? Because, an order of Belgian monks spent three centuries collecting evidence for the lives of saints from manuscript archives around the known world."(The Gory Origins of Valentine's Day).That same article also says..."The Brothers dug up every scrap of information about every saint on the liturgical calendar and printed the texts arranged according to the  saint’s feast day.Many may argue that , "Valentine's Day derives from a Christianized version of a pagan holiday. Just as the Christians stole Christmas and Easter, from the pagans, they took this celebration from the Roman pagans.(The Dark Orgins of Valentine's Day) so in a gist ,  If one doesn't not adhere to Christology, then why would one want to celebrate to the name of a Catholic Saint who had nothing to do with the original festival?

“The Gory Origins of Valentine's Day.” Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, 14 Feb. 2018, www.smithsonianmag.com/history/gory-origins-valentines-day-180968156/.

Seipel, Arnie. “The Dark Origins Of Valentine's Day.” NPR, NPR, 13 Feb. 2011, www.npr.org/2011/02/14/133693152/the-dark-origins-of-valentines-day.