Valentine's Day Origins

We all know about the St. Valentine(s) in the Roman Catholic Church. This feast day, of February 14^th, was made holy in the year 496. In its origins, it had nothing to do with love.

Similar associations with the holiday go much further back. The celebration of Lupercalia in ancient Rome focused on fertility during the ides of February. Februa, which predates Lupercalia, was a ritual celebration of cleansing, as it noted the beginning of the rainy season.

Neither of these celebrations had anything to do with love for one another, but they did focus on the ideas behind spring time which are usually associated with mating.

The connotation of Valentine’s Day having to do with ‘love’ belongs to the creative thoughts of Geoffry Chaucer and William Shakespeare. These musings were published in Chaucer’s Parlement of Foules in 1382, and Shakespeare’s Hamlet in 1601, which introduced the concept of love and Valentine’s Day cards.

I for one have always despised all holidays, not just because they remind us single folk we have no one to share it with, but because we allow our lives to be dictated to us by retailers.

‘BUY BUY BUY’ is the message of capitalist America; whether it’s a holiday or not.

We haven’t come very far from our motherland republic, the Roman Empire. Even Lupercalia celebrations pushed the sales of furs, so that men could use them to spank women with.

However, I’ve learned over the years, that no matter your standpoint on Valentine’s Day, it doesn’t spare you the guilt trip from your mother when you neglect to honor the holiday.

So, a word to the wise, to other men suffering in my situation of succumbing to purchase themed frivolities:  Just buy the crap she wants and consider it an investment.

There’s no use fighting against the things that are already deeply engrained within our culture.

By Randall Thomas

Be sure to nominate The Model Citizen for publication. 

Model City had once thrived, owing its glory to the success of the Love Canal and the genius of Nikola Tesla. Now, it suffers from economic collapse. In a city laden with crime, wanton heroes emerge. A mysterious character begins to lead the blind, and a mountain of conspiracy clouds the minds of the righteous.

Burdened by conjecture and stricken with grief, William Howell somehow manages to climb the corporate ladder. The Model Citizen newspaper represents to him the true word of the people. It is up to him to determine its quality.

Read the first 5,000 words free, here:

The Model Citizen 

Thanks,

Joe