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Valentine
Legends 2 |
Legend #1
LUPERCALIA
When Rome was first founded it was
surrounded by a wilderness. Great packs
of wolves roamed over the countryside.
Among their many gods the Romans had one
named Lupercus who watched over the
shepherds and their flocks. In his
honour they held a great feast in
February of each year and called it the
Lupercalia. The Lupercalia festival was
an echo of the days when Rome consisted
of a group of shepherd folk that lived
on a hill now known as Palantine. On the
calendar used back in those days,
February came later than it does today,
so Lupercalia was a official beginning
of spring and was considered a time for
purification. Sweeping out the floor and
then sprinkling salt and a type of wheat
called spelt throughout their interiors
ritually cleansed houses.
Some believe the festival Lupercalia,
which began at the ides of February,
February 15, was a fertility festival
dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of
agriculture, as well as to the Roman
founders Romulus , or Remuswho like the
Greek Pan, was a god of herds and crops,
but the origin of Lupercalia is so
ancient that even scholars of the last
century before Christ were never sure.
There is no question about its
importance. Records show, for instance,
that Mark Antony, an important Roman,
was master of the Luperci College of
Priests. He chose the Lupercalia
festival of the year 44BC as the proper
time for offering the crown to Julius
Caesar.
Each year, on February 15 to begin the
festival, the Luperci priests gathered
on the Palantine at the cave of Lupercal.
Here, according to legend, Romulus and
Remus, founders of Rome, had been nursed
by a mother wolf. In Latin, the word
lupus is the word for wolf. The priests
would then sacrifice a goat, for
fertility, and a dog, for purification.
Luperci (priests of Lupercus) dressed in
goatskins and, smeared with the
sacrificial blood, would run about
striking the women with thongs of
goatskin. Some of the rituals involved
youths of noble birth running through
the streets with goatskin thongs dipped
them in the sacrificial blood and took
to the streets, gently slapping both
women and fields of crops with the
goathide strips. Far from being fearful,
Roman women welcomed being touched with
the hides because it was believed the
strips would make them more fertile in
the coming year , it was believed to
make them better able to bear children.
The goatskin thongs were known as the
februa and the lashing the februatio,
both coming from a Latin word meaning to
purify. And eventually the name of the
month February comes from this meaning.
Later in the day, according to legend,
all the young women in the city would
place their names in a big urn. The
city's bachelors would then each choose
a name out of the urn and become thus
pairing them off until the next
Lupercalia. These matches often ended in
marriage.
Long after Rome became a walled city and
the seat of a powerful empire, the
Lupercalia lived on. When Roman armies
invaded France and Britain, they took
the Lupercalia customs there. One of
these is believed to be a lottery where
the names of Roman maidens were placed
in a box and drawn out by the young men.
Each man accepted the girl whose name he
drew as his love - for a year or longer.
Looks like later after Christianity was
firmly established the priests wanted
the people to forget the old heathen
gods. But they did not wish to do away
with all their feasts and sports. So
they kept the Lupercalia and called it
Valentine's Day. There is some reason to
believe that the Lupercalia was a
forerunner of modern VALENTINE'S DAY
TRADITIONS.
Legend #2
This legend says that Valentine's Day
started in ancient Rome, on February
14th, a holiday to honor Juno. Juno was
the Queen of the Roman Gods and
Goddesses. The Romans also knew her as
the Goddess of women and marriage. Then,
the following day, February 15th, began
the Feast of Lupercalia. In those days,
the lives of young boys and girls were
strictly separate. However, on the eve
of the festival of Lupercalia, the names
of Roman girls were written on slips of
paper and placed into jars. Each young
man would draw a girl's name from the
jar and would then be partners for the
duration of the festival with the girl
whom he chose. Sometimes the pairing of
the children lasted an entire year, and
often, they would fall in love and would
later marry.
Legend #3
The other legend, and perhaps the best
known, also began in Rome; this was
around when the heyday of Roman Empire
had almost come to an end. Lack of
quality administrators led to frequent
civil strife. Learning declined,
taxation increased, and trade slumped to
a low, precarious level. And the Gauls,
Slavs, Huns, Turks and Mongolians from
Northern Europe and Asian increased
their pressure on the empire's
boundaries. The empire was grown too
large to be shielded from external
aggression and internal chaos with
existing forces. Thus more of capable
men were required to be recruited as
soldiers and officers. So as the result
all these rituals of Feast of Lupercalia
under the laws of Claudius were banned
as the Emperor, Claudius II, was
involved in many bloody and unpopular
campaigns. "Claudius the Cruel" as he
was called, was having a difficult time
getting soldiers to join his military
leagues. He believed that the reason was
that Roman men did not want to leave
their loves or families ,he felt that
married men were more emotionally
attached to their families, and thus,
will not make good soldiers.. When
Emperor Claudius II decided that single
men made better soldiers than those with
wives and families, he outlawed marriage
for young .So he cancelled all marriages
and engagements in Rome! Saint Valentine
was a priest who served at beautiful
temple during the third century in Rome
in the year 269 A.D. The Romans loved
him dearly and assembled in the temple
to hear his words. Before the fire that
always burned on the altar they knelt to
ask his blessing. Rich and poor, wise
and ignorant, old and young, noble and
common people they all flocked to
Valentine.
Now the good priest Valentine heard of
the Emperor's command and was very sad,
he seeing the trauma of young lovers, .
When a young couple came to the temple,
he secretly united them in marriage in
front of the sacred altar. Another pair
sought his aid and in secret he wedded
them. Others came and quietly were
married. Valentine was the friend of
lovers in every district of Rome. But,
such secrets could not be kept for long
in Rome. At last word of Valentine's
acts reached the palace and Claudius the
Cruel was angry, exceedingly angry. He
summoned his soldiers. "Go! Take that
priest in the temple! Cast him into a
dungeon! No man in Rome, priest or not,
shall disobey my commands!" Valentine
was dragged from the temple, away from
the altar where a young maiden and a
Roman youth stood, ready to be married,
and the soldiers took him off to prison.
Claudius ordered that he be beaten to
death with clubs and to have his head
cut off. Some story says, the emperor,
impressed with the young priest's
dignity and conviction, attempted,
convert him to the roman gods, to save
him from certain execution. Valentine
refused to recognize Roman Gods and even
attempted to convert the emperor,
knowing the consequences fully. On
February 24, 270, Valentine was
executed.
In deferent interpretation story says
what, many asked Claudius to release
Valentine but Claudius refused to do so,
and in a dungeon Valentine languished
and died. His devoted friends buried him
in the church of St. Praxedes. When you
go to Rome you can see the very place.
It was the year 270BC, on the 14th of
February.
Other stories suggest that Valentine may
have been killed for attempting to help
Christians escape harsh Roman prisons
where they were often beaten and
tortured.
Legend #4
According other legend, Valentine
actually sent the first 'valentine'
greeting himself. While in prison, it is
believed that Valentine fell in love
with a young girl -- who may have been
his jailor's daughter -- who visited him
during his confinement. Before his
death, on the 14th day of February, it
is alleged that he wrote her a letter,
which he signed 'From your Valentine,'
an expression that is still in use
today. In 496 A.D., Pope Gelasius set
aside February 14 to honor St.
Valentine.
This story also has second deferent
interpretation: While Valentine was in
prison awaiting his fate, he came in
contact with his jailor, Asterius. The
jailor had a blind daughter. Asterius
requested him to heal his daughter.
Through his faith he miraculously
restored the sight of Asterius'
daughter. Just before his execution, he
asked for a pen and paper from his
jailor, and signed a farewell message to
her "From Your Valentine," a phrase that
lived ever after.
Although the truth behind the Valentine
legends is murky, the stories certainly
emphasize his appeal as a sympathetic,
heroic, and, most importantly, romantic
figure. It's no surprise that by the
Middle Ages, Valentine was one of the
most popular saints in England and
France.
Legend #5
Another story tell us, as to the origins
of Valentine's Day was that he was a
priest who was also a physician and
would cure the sick. He was also said to
have tried to cure the jailers blind
daughter, but, was arrested and on the
day of his execution he wrote a note as
a final farewell saying "From your
Valentine" which some say is what caused
her to gain her sight. It is also said
whilst he was in jail awaiting execution
that he was sent little notes and
flowers from the children whom he had
helped when they were sick. This also
may have been one of the reasons why he
sent a farewell note to the jailer's
daughter and why we send valentines. St
Valentine's Day is celebrated on
February 14 of each year, the reason why
it is celebrated on this day is because
this was the day that the Patron Saint
of Lovers "St Valentine" was supposedly
executed on. On this day lovers all
around the world mark this occasion as a
day for sending poems, cards, flowers or
candy, etc. They might also be a social
gathering or ball to mark the occasion.
Legend #6
Another Interesting origin is that St
Valentine was the patron Saint of
Epilepsy reason was that he was
supposedly a sufferer and took a keen
interest in those who suffered from this
affliction and also that those who
suffered this disease were suffering
from Valentine's sickness.
Legend #7
So at final the Valentine's Day February
14 This story tell, the St. Valentine is
believed to have been a Roman priest who
was martyred on this day around 270. How
he became the patron saint of lovers
remains a mystery, but one theory is
that the Church used the day of St.
Valentine's martyrdom in an attempt to
Christianize the old Roman LUPERCALIA, a
pagan festival held around the middle of
February. Part of the ancient ceremony
entailed putting girls' names in a box
and letting the boys draw them out.
Couples would thus be paired off until
the following year. The Church
substituted saints' names for girls'
names, in the hope that the participant
would model his life after the saint
whose name he drew. But by the 16th
century, it was once again girls' names
that ended up in the box. Eventually the
custom of sending anonymous cards or
messages to those one admired became the
accepted way of celebrating St.
Valentine's Day. |
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