Pagan origins of Valentine's day
The first information about this day is found in pre-christian Rome,when Pagan would celebrate the "Feast of the Wolf" on feb,15th also known as the "Feast of Lupercalius" in honour of pastoral gol Lupercalis(who had many love affairs with nymphs and goddesses),Februata Juno(the Roman goddess of women 7 marriage), and the pan (the roman GOD of nature).On this day, young women would place their names in an urn,from which boys would randomly draw to discover their companion(without any moral restrictions) for the day,the year and sometimes the rest of their lives.These partners exchange gifts as a sign of affection and love for each other.
Likewise, virtually naked,arrow shooting picture of Cupid on valentine cards is a peculiar symbol of valentine and according to Roman mythology,is the son of Venus(the goddess of love and beauty),who induces love in people by shooting his arrow at them.
CHRISTIAN INFLUENCE
When Christianity came onto the scene in Rome,it wanted to replace this feast with something more in line with its ethics and morality.A number of christians decided to use Feb,14th ; a day on which the Italian Bishop St.Valentine was executed by the Roman emperor Claudius 2 for conducting secret marriages of military men(forbidden to marry) in the year 270CE.According to the details,during the time of Roman Emperor claudius 2 due to the continuous infighting.Rome was the center point of wars.The declining figure of male fighters(as men would not want to leave their wives and go the bettle front) in his army forced him to impose a ban on marriages.So that young man may be persuaded to go on the battlefront. St.Valentine started performing secret marriages at that time .When his actions were revealed,Claudius threw him in jail and sentenced him to execution.
In prison,he fell in love with the jailer's daughter,who would visit him but this was a secret because according to Christian law,Priests and monks were forbidden to fall in love or marry.But he is still regarded highly by the Christians because of his steadfastness in adhering to Christianity when the emperor offered to pardon him if he renounced Christianity and worshipped the roman gods.He also offered him to be his closest confidantes and he would make him his son-in-law.
However,Valentine refused his offer and preferred Christianity.He was executed on 14th,feb 270 CE,the eve of feb15th on the festival of Lupercalis.Before he died,he wrote a letter to jailor's daughter and the closing of the letter read as "From your valentine".These very words are used on most of the Valentine's greeting cards in commemoration of the same incident.
There atleast three different St.valentine ,all of whom are christian martyrs of feb14th.It was in the year 496 CE that Pope Gelasius officially changed the feb15th Lupercalia festival to the feb14th St.Valentine's day to give christian meaning to a Pagan festival.Pope ordered a slight change in the lottery for young women during the Pagan festival .Instead of the names of young women ,the box would contain the names of saints,men & women were allowed to draw from the box and whoever draw the name of the respective saint,he would copy his( saint's )ways for the rest of the year ...
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