Valentine's
Day, on February 14th, is the traditional day on which
lovers in the West let each other know about their love.
Its obscure origins as a Catholic Church feast day,
said to be in honor of Saint Valentine are discussed
below. Some readers may also want to see the entry for
Valentinius. The day could not have become associated
with romantic love before the High Middle Ages when
such concepts were formulated. See Romantic love.
The day is now most closely associated
with the mutual exchange of love notes in the form
of "valentines". Modern Valentine symbols
include the heart-shaped outline and the figure of
the winged Cupid. Starting in the 19th century, the
practice of hand writing notes has largely given way
to the exchange of mass-produced greeting cards. The
Greeting Card Association estimates that world-wide
approximately one billion valentine cards are sent
each year, making the day the second largest card-sending
holiday of the year behind Christmas. The association
also estimates that women purchase approximately 85
percent of all valentines.
In the United States in the second
half of the 20th century, the practice of exchanging
cards has been extended to include the giving of all
manner gifts, usually from the man to the woman. Such
gifts typically include roses and chocolate. Starting
in the 1980s, the diamond industry began to promote
Valentine's day as occasion for the giving of fine
jewelry.
A dinner date on Valentine's Day is
often regarded as indicating that a dating couple
is involved in a serious relationship.
In the United States the day has come
to be associated as well with a generic Platonic greeting
of "Happy Valentine's", which may be said
by men to their female friends, but rarely to other
male friends.
History of Valentine's Day
February fertility festivals
The association of the middle of February with love
and fertility dates to ancient times. In the calendar
of Ancient Athens, the period between mid January
and mid February was the month of Gamelion, which
was dedicated to the sacred marriage of Zeus and Hera.
In Ancient Rome, the day of February
15 was Lupercalia, the festival of Lupercus, the god
of fertility, who was represented as half-naked and
dressed in goat skins. As part of the purification
ritual, the priests of Lupercus would sacrifice goats
to the god, and after drinking wine, they would run
through the streets of Rome holding pieces of the
goat skin above their heads, touching anyone they
met. Young women especially would come forth voluntarily
for the occasion, in the belief that being so touched
would render them fruitful and bring easy childbirth.
According to the Catholic Encyclopedia (1908), at
least three different Saints Valentine, all of them
martyrs and all quite obscure, are mentioned in the
early martyrologies under the date of February 14th:
a priest in Rome who suffered martyrdom in
the second half of the 3rd century and was buried
on the Via Flaminia.
a bishop of Interamna (modern Terni) also suffered
martyrdom in the second half of the 3rd century and
was also buried on the Via Flaminia, but in a different
location than the priest.
a martyr in North Africa, about whom little else is
known.
The connection between St. Valentine and romantic
love is not mentioned in any early histories and is
regarded by historians as purely a matter of legend
(see below). The feast of St. Valentine was first
declared to be on February 14 by Pope Gelasius I around
498. There is a widespread legend that he created
the day to counter the practice held on Lupercalia
of young men and women pairing off as lovers by drawing
their names out of an urn, but this practice is not
attested in any sources from that era.
In the 19th century, relics of St.
Valentine were donated by Pope Gregory XVI to the
Whitefriar Street Carmelite Church in Dublin, Ireland,
which has become a popular place of pilgrimage on
February 14.
In 1969, as part of a larger effort
to pare down the number of saint days of purely legendary
origin, the Church removed St. Valentine's Day as
an official holiday from its calendar.
Valentinius
The influential Gnostic teacher Valentinius was a
candidate for Bishop of Rome in 143. In his teachings,
the marriage bed assumed a central place in his version
of Christian love, an emphasis sharply in contrast
with the asceticism of mainstream Christianity. Stephan
A. Hoeller, assesses Valentinius on the subject :
"In addition to baptism, anointing, eucharist,
the initiation of priests and the rites of the dying,
the Valentinian Gnosis mentions prominently two great
and mysterious sacraments called "redemption"
(apolytrosis) and "bridal chamber" respectively"
[1] (http://www.gnosis.org/valentinus.htm).
Medieval era
The first recorded association of St. Valentine's
Day with romantic love was in the 14th century in
England and France, where it was believed that February
14 was the day on which birds paired off to mate.
This belief is mentioned in the writings of Geoffrey
Chaucer in the 14th century, who wrote in the Parlement
of Foules that
For this was sent on Seynt Valentyne's
day
Whan every foul cometh ther to choose his mate
It was common during that era for lovers to exchange
notes on this day and to call each other their "Valentines".
A 14th century valentine is said to be in the collection
of the British Library. It is probable that many of
the legends about St. Valentine were invented during
this period. Among the legends are ones that assert
that:
On the evening before St. Valentine
was to be martyred for being a Christian, he passed
a love note to his jailer's daughter which read "From
Your Valentine".
During a ban on marriages of Roman soldiers by the
Emperor Claudius II, St. Valentine secretly helped
arrange marriages.
In most versions of these legends, February 14 is
the date associated with his martyrdom.
Modern Valentine's Day
Valentine's Day was probably imported into
North America in the 19th century with settlers from
Britain. In the United States, the first mass-produced
valentines of embossed paper lace were produced and
sold shortly after 1847 by Esther A. Howland (1828
- 1904) of Worcester, Massachusetts. Her father operated
a large book and stationery store, and she took her
inspiration from an English valentine she had received.
(Since 2001, the Greeting Card Association has been
giving an annual "Esther Howland Award for a
Greeting Card Visionary".)
Valentine's Day in non-western countries
In Japan, Valentine's Day has emerged,
thanks to a concentrated marketing effort, as a day
on which women give chocolates to men they like. Rather
than being voluntary however, this has become for
many women especially those who work in offices an
obligation, and they give chocolates to all their
male co-workers, sometimes at significant personal
expense. This chocolate is known as giri-choco (?????),
from the words giri (obligation) and choco, a common
short version of chokoreeto (??????), meaning chocolate.
By a further marketing effort, a reciprocal
day, called White Day has emerged. On this day (March
14), men are supposed to return the favour by giving
something to those who gave them chocolates on Valentine's
Day. Many men, however, give only to their girlfriends.
The return gift should be white (hence the name),
and is often lingerie.
In Taiwan, in addition to Valentine's
Day and White Day, there is a third holiday that has
similar functionality to the previous two. It's called
the "Daughter's Festival". It is held on
the 7th month and 7th day of the lunar calendar, the
next one being August 11, 2005. More information can
be found here (http://www.chinesefortunecalendar.com/77.htm).
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