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~Happy Valentine's Day From Season's Of the Heart~
Valentine's orginated in 5th century Rome as a celebration or tribute to St. Valentine, a catholic bishop. For 800 years prior to the first celebration of Valentine's Day, Romans had practiced a pagan celebration in mid-February in commemoration of young men's "rite of passage" to the god Lupercus. This celebration included a lottery where the young men would draw out the names of teenage girls from a box, the chosen girls would then become the mans sexual companion for the remaining year..not so romantic huh? Pope Gelasius wanted to put an end to this lottery so instead of using young ladies names he began putting Saints names into the box. The men and women would then draw out the names of the saints, they would then have to emulate the ways of the saint for the rest of the year. How well do you think the young Roman men felt about this change? Valentine was chosen to replace the pagan god Lupercus as the symbol for the celebration. Valentine was beheaded by Emperor Claudius in 270 AD. Claudius had decided during his reign that married men didn't make good soldiers so he banned marriage from his empire. Going against Claudius, Valentine would secretly marry couples during this period. After finding out about Valentine's acts, Claudius tried to convert Valentine to paganism and in turn Valentine tried to convert Claudius to Christianity. When he failed he was stoned and beheaded. During Valentine's imprisonment he met and fell in love with the jailer's blind daughter. His love and faith is said to have cured the girls blindness. Before being taken to his death he signed a note to the daughter, "From your Valentine"..the very phrase that we use today! Although the lottery was banned from the mid-February celebration in commemoration of St. Valentine the men still used this "holiday" as an opportunity to gain the affections of women. Often hand written notes or cards were used to show their emotions using the name Valentine on the card. This is where the Valentine card first originated..
Some fun
Valentine's Links:
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History of Valentine's Day
