14th
I hope all you enjoy your pagan holiday.
Drunk & naked Romans celebrated the feast of Lupercalia (the first Valentine’s day) by sacrificing a goat and whipping women with the hides.
This also included a matchmaking lottery. Men drew the names of women from a large jar. The lucky lady would then ‘couple-up’ with the man who drew her name for the duration of the festival. If the match worked out well it may last a bit longer.
So why was this cool pagan date changed to a nice day for those in love? The answer is the same for any major holiday - because people died. Claudius II of Roam executed two men. Both of them were named Valentine (one or both a Catholic priest). Both were executed on Feb 14th (but in different years). A couple hundred years later the Catholic Church supported the day and renamed it Saint Valentine’s Day. They did however take out the pagan rituals and the cool jar. This would have all ended as a neat little martyr holiday for the church, but some poet named Chaucer had to go and write St. Valentine’s Day into some romantic lame day for lovers. Not even the church could take all the sappy lovie-dovie that the day turned into, so they took it off the holy calendar of saints in 1969.
Now, Hallmark makes a good portion of their profit from Valentine’s day. You see, they own the legal rights to ‘love’, so the only way you can buy ‘love’ is from Hallmark. (its a fact, look it up or ask Lisa S.)
And no, this tirade did not come from my bitterness that my wife is on call today - all day! grrr!
