The origins of Saint Valentine’s Day
Date: Tuesday, February 14th, 2006 (CDT )
Topic: Ancient History
 When pope Gelasius declared the 14th of February as St. Valentine’s Day, around 498 A.D. it was far from being a romantic celebration. The life of this saint has always been shrouded in mystery and so are the reasons that lead Christians to worship him.
History only tells us that he probably was a martyred man but the explanations for his dreadful destiny are mentioned in several different legends. Some historians point him as a priest who secretly defied the orders of Emperor Claudius by celebrating marriages of young couples.
Claudius had declared it to be forbidden for young men to get married before first serving their duty in the roman army. Others claim he was executed for trying to help Christians to escape prison and torture. The famous expression “from your Valentine” is actually attributed to this mysterious man who wrote it down at the end of a letter to his beloved while he was imprisoned in a roman dungeon and was said to have been executed on February 14th.
February’s
romantic origins may also be connected with the ancient roman festival
of Lupercalia, a fertility celebration often associated with the
beginning of spring. Animals were usually offered in sacrifice to
Romulus and Remus, the mythical founders of Rome, and the sacrificial
blood was then spilled over women and fields, where it was believed it
would bring them fertility.
Traditionally this time of
the year was also considered to be very lucky for arranging matches and
weddings. When the Catholic Church replaced these pagan celebrations
for a holy day dedicated to Saint Valentine, it was a natural
transition for people to make. Saint Valentine became one of the most
popular saints in central Europe during the Middle Ages and his
blessings were always related with romantic heroism. As the patron of
lovers and weddings, his legend inspired people to start following the
tradition of writing letters, poems or offering symbolic gifts to their
loved ones on this special day.
Little information about
the first valentines has survived, although we know that names like
Henry V or Charles, Duke of Orleans, figure among the first who were
known to have sent valentine letters. The tradition was already popular
in Great Britain during the 17th century and Americans embraced it
later, around the 18th century. It was actually many years later that
the first mass produced valentines, created by Esther A. Houland,
replaced the traditional hand-made ones. Houland’s artistic cards
became the first to be produced by the American card industry and made
Valentines day one of the most successful celebrations of modern times,
second only to Christmas.
Of all the icons and
symbols associated with this day, Cupid is undoubtedly one of the most
popular among couples. For centuries, the image of this angelical child
has been associated with virtues of love; while the arrows and bow he
carries, are said to represent both the desire and the will to
accomplish it. Being the god of love, he held the power to make his
victims fall into an eternal dream of passion, but he also could keep
couples apart for a whole lifetime. Originally, this winged boy was
called “Cupido”, the Latin word for desire, and was known as the son of
Venus, the roman goddess of beauty and love. But he was not always seen
as a small child.
Cupid’s Greek counterpart,
Eros (love), was the son of the goddess Aphrodite. Eros was described
as one of the most beautiful of the gods and ended up falling in love
with a mortal princess named Psyche. Aphrodite, who had been jealous of
the Psyche’s beauty, sent her son Eros to kill Psyche, but instead he
fell in love with her. Knowing that their marriage would make Aphrodite
even angrier, Eros devised a cunning plan to win Psyche for himself
while keeping his mother ignorant of his actions. The god of love and
desire arranged to have Psyche taken to a desolate palace. Here, the
innocent girl was told, she would become the bride of an evil being.
Eros then came to Psyche when she had gone to bed every night when it
was too dark to see anything. Using the darkness to his advantage he
concealed his identity from the girl. He whispered in Psyche's ear that
he was her husband and that she must not under any circumstances look
upon him or seek to know who he was.
After listening to her
jealous sisters, Psyche took the forbidden step of gazing at her
husband’s face using a lamp. Furious, Eros left, and Psyche thought
their relationship to be over forever. Beside herself with grief, she
was now alone and abandoned by her husband. She searched continually
for her lost love, but was unable to find him. In desperation, Psyche
asked the goddesses Aphrodite for help. It was only after completing a
series of seemingly impossible tasks that Aphrodite had set, that she
was able to win back the love of Eros. Eros who had been equally bereft
without Psyche then made her a goddess by giving her a drink of
Ambrosia, which made her immortal, transforming her into a goddess.
This is one of the reasons why Eros is seen as the symbolic bridge
between divine and mortal love, the mythological proof that is possible
for humans to reach the divine spheres through the power of love.
When we search for the
origins of Saint Valentine’s Day, what we find is a combination of
Roman celebrations, pagan traditions and ancient springtime festivals
which were later “Christianised”. Although the mysterious valentine is
known all over the world as the patron of this romantic day and Cupid
became one of its famous icons, if we take a closer look at existing
mythology, we realise that all ancient civilizations had their own
deities specifically dedicated to love. In Ancient Egypt Hathor
fulfilled this role, in Greece, Aphrodite and Eros. In Rome, Venus was
worshipped and in India, Kama Varuna and Radha. In Norse mythology,
Freyja was the goddess of love and fertility. Going back even further
in Sumer, Ishtar fulfilled this role, the Aztecs had a god named
Tlazolteotl, in northern Europe they had Yarilo and in the African
continent they had Ani.
From Babylon to South
America, from Ancient Britain to the sandy landscapes of Egypt, we also
find hundreds of ancient love spells, incantations and poems. Love has
always played a major role in the “playground” of our society, there
have always been special days and celebrations dedicated to it, and
from this year’s commercial preparations, the tradition seems to be
here to stay.
This article was written for ThothWeb by Myrna.
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