St Valentines day - a brief history
Lupercalia - the origin of St. Valentines Day
The true origin of St. Valentine's day appears to be the Lupercalia.
The Lupercalia was a Roman festival celebrated on the 15th Day of February.
In the Roman calendar February was later in the year and so the Lupercalia was
a spring festival.
This festival was even old to the Romans, they were unsure of which deity it honoured.
It harked back to the days when Rome was a small shepherding community on a hill
called the Palantine and could have honoured Lupercus, who protected flocks against wolves,
Rumina whose temple overlooked the place where the she-wolf suckled Romulus and
Remus or Faunus the god of shepherds and agriculture.
Before the times of the great city of Rome the Lupercalia was a very
joyous occasion. The foreheads of
two youths were smeared with the blood of a sacrificed dog and goat.
They then made their way around the perimeter of the city of Rome followed by priests
lightly tapping women on the way with strips of the goats skin.
This act was to protect them against infertility.
Sewing the seeds of Valentine's day
As Rome became the dominant civilisation of the era, the Lupercalia continued
as an important part of the calendar. The seeds of the modern St. Valentine's Day
were sewn by Roman soldiers who took the Lupercalia customs
with them to countries they conquered and occupied. One such custom was the pairing of men with
women whose names they selected from a bowl. The pairing continued for the length of the
festival and sometimes beyond.
Christianity and the Introduction of St. Valentine
As Christianity gradually advanced through Europe the church replaced pagan festivals with festivals
more suited to the new faith. They kept the days of the festivals the same to
ease the introduction of the new religion but they changed the name and the reason
for the festival. The Lupercalia's pairing of men and women went against the teachings
of Christianity. In 496 AD Pope Gelasius ended the festival of Lupercalia and replaced it with
St. Valentines Day, declaring St. Valentine the patron saint of lovers.
The pairing of couples was replaced with the pairing with a saint. The name of
a saint would be drawn from a bowl and the person who chose it would then learn about
and try to emulate that saint for the following year.
Return of St Valentine's Day Lovers
Pairing with a saint and the churches concept of St. Valentine's Day lasted several hundred
years, but the spirit of the Lupercalia lived on in hearts and minds. By the 15th Century
eligible singles began pairing again. Medieval knights drew the names of their valentines from bowls
and wore the names on their sleeves swearing to honour and protect them. They would sing love
songs and profess their love with poetry. Eventually it became customary to write the verses down
for your lover to read and by the 1600's Valentine cards had become quite elaborate.
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Valentine Links
All about Valentines Day
Valentines Day Traditions
Valentines Day History
Valentine Card History
St. Valentine the legend
St. Valentine
Writing Valentines
Valentine Cards
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