THE ORIGIN OF VALETINE'S DAY

This is one article that everyone would want to read, mostly the youths and especially around the month of February or like they call it, the month of love but what you are about to find out may be very far from your expectations. Firstly, we must note that they were three recognized Saint Valentine or Valentinus and no one is sure which of them exactly  is been celebrated as they were all known for acts of love and all three martyr.

But this does not explain the purpose of the celebration, that is darker and more fetish in nature, don’t get confused, let me explain. February 14 was a strong Roman pagan feast. 

Actually it was a three days celebrations from 13^th to 15^th Feb. 14^th been the main day, on that day the Romans celebrated the feast of Lupercalia during which the men sacrificed a goat and a dog, then whipped women with the hides of the animals they had just slain. Young women would actually line up for the men to hit them, they believed this would make them fertile, and they did this in a drunken and nude state.

The brutal feat included a matchmaking lottery, in which young men drew the names of women from a jar. The couple would then be coupled up for the duration of the festival – or longer, if the match was right engaging in sexual acts of pleasure.

It was in attempt to erase this tradition that the church introduced the feast of St. Valentine.

The most popular martyr-ology associated with Saint Valentine was that he was imprisoned for performing weddings for soldiers who were forbidden to marry and for ministering to Christians, who were persecuted under the Roman Empire; during his imprisonment, he is said to have healed the daughter of his jailer Asterius. Legend states that before his execution he wrote "from your Valentine" as a farewell to her.

Today, Saint Valentine's Day is an official feast day celebration in the Anglican Communion, as well as in the Lutheran Church  and In the Eastern Orthodox Church.

 

 Saint Valentine the Presbyter is celebrated on July 6 and Hieromartyr Saint Valentine (Bishop of Interamna, Terni in Italy) is celebrated on July 30. Notwithstanding, because of the relative obscurity of this western saint in the East, members of the Greek Orthodox Church named Valentinos (male) or Valentina (female) may celebrate their name day on the Western ecclesiastical calendar date of February 14.

In the Roman Catholic Church the name Valentinus does not yet occur in the earliest list of Roman martyrs, compiled by the Chronographer of 354. But it already can be found in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum which was compiled, from earlier local sources, between 460 and 544. The feast of St. Valentine of February 14 was first established in 496 by Pope Gelasius I, who included Valentine among all those "... whose names are justly reverenced among men, but whose acts are known only to God." As Gelasius implies, nothing was yet known to him about his life.

Saint Valentine's Day, commonly known as Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine is observed on February 14 each year. It is celebrated in many countries around the world, although it still remains a working day in most of them.

Now you know the origin of valentine’s day, do share with others and enjoy your valentine.