What is Valentine’s Day?
Valentine’s is a day surrounded by love. You go around giving gifts to your beloved, friends, or loved ones. While we celebrate the day by giving gifts such as flowers, candies, cards, and other small trinkets, few think about the history of this holiday.
Who started Valentine’s Day?
There are many versions of the day dedicated to love from all over the world. According to the New York Times, Valentine’s Day first originated from an ancient festival of Lupercalia, “a raucous, wine-fueled fertility rite in which Roman men and women paired off.” However, legend has it that the deep roots of the holiday was a Catholic priest named Valentine, 200 years ago, who converted many people to Catholicism. However, the Emperor, Claudius II, was pagan and very strict about what Catholics were allowed to do. Claudius believed that the Roman soldiers should stay true, loyal, and devoted to Rome. He put down a law preventing any soldier from marrying. Soon after, Valentine began marrying the soldiers with their beloved in secret Christian ceremonies. His reputation started with his belief in the importance of love. When Claudius found out what the priest was doing, he sent him to prison to be executed. While in prison, Valentine cared for those around him, even caring for the other prisoners in the jail. But before his death, he fell in love with the jailer’s daughter. He left her a letter and signed it with “from your Valentine.” This popularized the letter format used on Valentine’s Day – you would say who the letter was from and who is meant to be the recipient.
Origins of Cupid
The character of Cupid is well known in all parts of the world, but who and what is Cupid? Most of the time Cupid is depicted as a cherub with a bow and an arrow in the shape of a heart. A cherub is related to Christianity and is seen as the second highest angel, and is popularly depicted as a small child with wings and a round face. Cupid goes around spreading the love with his bow, but he, too, has a background story. Despite Cupid’s infamous look being associated with Christianity, he has roots in Greek mythology. Cupid is a Greek god; his true name being Eros. Before he was associated with Valentine’s Day, he was the god of love, desire, and attraction in all varieties. Cupid makes his victims fall in love by shooting them with golden arrows. But in some stories, he is portrayed as being either blind or blindfolded choosing his victims at random. This makes the expression “love is blind,” surface because Cupid didn’t see where his arrows would hit. Despite Cupid coming off as a good force, he can be careless, callous, and mischievous in his matchmaking.
Love is Love
While there may be multiple interpretations of who and what started Valentine’s Day one thing people can agree on is that over the years Valentine’s Day has evolved from a festival of fertility and springtime to the meaning being anything you could want it to be. In today’s society, people make handmade cards and gifts, or you can simply go to the store and buy gifts for your loved ones. The day is to celebrate romantic love, friendship, and admiration and to express it to your friends and family.
