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dip them into the sacrificial blood and take to the streets,
gently slapping both women and crop fields. Roman women
welcomed the touch of the hides because it was believed to
make them more fertile in the coming year. Later in the day,
according to legend, all the young women in the city would
place their names in a big urn. The city’s bachelors would
each choose a name and become paired for the year with
his chosen woman. These matches often ended in marriage.
Lupercalia was outlawed at the end of the fifth century,
when Pope Gelasius declared Feb 14 St. Valentine’s Day.
It was not until much later, however, that the day became
definitively associated with love. During the Middle Ages,
it was commonly believed in France and England, that Feb
14 was the beginning of birds’ mating season, which added
to the idea that the middle of Febuary should be a day for
romance.
Every Feb 14, across theworld, candy, flowers and gifts are exchanged between loved
ones, all in thenameof St. Valentine.Who is thismysterious saint, andwheredid these
traditions come from?
Love Me Tender
T
he
history of Valentine’s Day–and the story of its patron saint–is a mysterious
one. What is know is that February has long been celebrated as a month of
romance, and that St. Valentine’s Day contains elements of ancient Roman
tradition. But who was Saint Valentine and how did he become associated
with this ancient rite? One legend 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. Valentine, realising the injustice of the decree, defied
Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When Valentine’s
actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death.
Founders of Rome
While some believe that Valentine’s Day is celebrated in
the middle of February to commemorate the anniversary of
Valentine’s death or burial, other claims say that the Christian
church may have decided to place St. Valentine’s feast day
in the middle of February in an effort to “Christianise” the
pagan celebration of Lupercalia. Celebrated at the
ides
of February, or Feb 15, Lupercalia was a fertility festival
dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, as well
as to the Roman founders Romulus and Remus.
To begin the festival, members of the Luperci, an order
of Roman priests, would gather at a sacred cave where the
infants Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, were
believed to have been cared for by a she-wolf or lupa. The
priests would sacrifice a goat, for fertility, and a dog, for
purification. They would then strip the goat’s hide into strips,