💞💗💕 YOUR Perception of the HISTORY of Valentine's Day

sillysassysillysassy
in General

I was having an interesting discussion.... SHOCKINGLY ENOUGH ....with some fellow cuddly peeps and I was laughing at the difference in our perspective and upbringing.

What is your truth about the history of Valentine's Day? How does that affect your outlook on it today??

I hope everyone is having LOVELY Thursday... Thank you all for being a part of this community. 😊

  1. What do you believe is the HISTORY behind Valentine's Day? 💗28 votes
    1. TOTALLY HALLMARKED THE SH!T OUT OF A NOTHING DAY.
      46.43%
    2. Some interesting Roman History from the AGES
      42.86%
    3. I'm here for the chocolate and Pop Corn
      10.71%
    4. Didn't it start being commemorated in the 70's with "Peace, LOVE, not War" Era?
        0.00%

Comments

  • sillysassysillysassy

    Just for funzies.....

  • [Deleted User]donhulio (deleted user)

    Devoted to yoga pants? Guess I need to go shopping... 😂

  • pmvinespmvines
    edited February 2025

    .

  • IronicMaidenIronicMaiden

    If there's a history other than that time a bunch of people were killed, I'm not aware of it. As far as I know, it's just a hallmark holiday.

  • RapidCuddlesRapidCuddles
    edited February 2025

    If you’ve ever felt hated by society, excluded from places you could not go, or persecuted by places and people, you’d want to know Saint Valintine.

    He did a great job of making sure people who were hated felt seen. In fact, he lived about 1700 years ago, but his impact was so great that people still make pilgrimages to see his skull in Italy if that's your thing.

    Once upon a time, epilepsy was thought of as an evil spirit. He’s noted for appearing for these individuals, too.

    In today's world, it would be nice to have more St Valentines. Glad some are on CC too.

  • Spud424Spud424

  • RapidCuddlesRapidCuddles
    edited February 2025

    Yep, loved the “unlovable” so well it was a death sentence.

    Was so committed to a cause, when given the choice to change his mind, he stayed true. And his head off. Part of why its still around all these years later.

    No fiction.

  • dennis22554dennis22554

    Not sure about Valentines day but did once upon the time in High School hijack the schools intercom system to read the history of the Easter Bunny both holidays involve chocolate

  • KatotaKatota

    I'm here for the chocolate and Pop Corn

    🍿🍫🍿🍫🍿🍫

    😁👍

  • IronicMaidenIronicMaiden

    Almost any holiday can involve chocolate if you want it to.

  • RapidCuddlesRapidCuddles
    edited February 2025

    @IronLemon in that case is everyday a holiday?

  • Katelyn_BKatelyn_B
    edited February 2025

    I voted for #2--Happy Lupercalia! 😇💖

    We are going to eat some goat to celebrate the day. I bought my sweetie a couple of fun presents, and I made him a protective charm that is gathering energy on my main altar.

    I also sent out a few cards to my friends, though unfortunately one that I sent to a particularly good friend came back today because the post office didn't like it and I'm going to have to resend it. That is what I get for using their automated system or perhaps I'm slightly incompetent. 😐

  • IronicMaidenIronicMaiden

    @RapidCuddles Yes, actually. https://nationaltoday.com/national-today-calendar/

  • RapidCuddlesRapidCuddles
    edited February 2025

    @sillysassy why “PERCEPTION of history” key word perception?

  • sillysassysillysassy

    Happy Valentine's Day!!! 😊🧡💙💗💛💜💓💟💘🤎🖤💖💚

    Why do I use the word PERCEPTION? (Definition: becoming aware of something through the senses) We are all taught different things based on how we were raised and our own particular environment. I use the word perception, because unless I/you have lived for thousands of years.... or maybe I/you are a Professor of History and have devoted your life to the ancient writings... or maybe I/you have gotten a secondary doctorate along with your History degrees uncoverings truths that weren't written then how can I/we be silly enough to think we possibly know the absolute truth about a holiday that has been linked to so many different possible paths?

    Did Saint Valentine actually give out paper hearts to remind people they were loved thousands of years ago? Who knows?? It's a MYSTERY! And there's a lot of ideas about "The TRUTH" of Valentine's Day.

    "The Catholic Church recognizes at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom were martyred."
    https://www.history.com/topics/valentines-day/history-of-valentines-day-2

    The history of Valentine's Day—and the story of its patron saint—is shrouded in mystery. We do know that February has long been celebrated as a month of romance, and that St. Valentine’s Day, as we know it today, contains vestiges of both Christian and ancient Roman tradition. But who was Saint Valentine, and how did he become associated with this ancient rite?

    The Catholic Church recognizes at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom were martyred. One legend contends that Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he outlawed marriage for young men. Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When Valentine’s actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death. Still others insist that it was Saint Valentine of Terni, a bishop, who was the true namesake of the holiday. He, too, was beheaded by Claudius II outside Rome.

    Americans probably began exchanging hand-made valentines in the early 1700s. In the 1840s, Esther A. Howland began selling the first mass-produced valentines in America. Howland, known as the “Mother of the Valentine,” made elaborate creations with real lace, ribbons and colorful pictures known as “scrap.”
    In addition to the United States, Valentine’s Day is celebrated in Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, France and Australia. In Great Britain, Valentine’s Day began to be popularly celebrated around the 17th century.

    "Lupercalia was an ancient pagan festival held each year in Rome on February 15. Although Valentine’s Day shares its name with a martyred Christian saint, some historians believe the holiday is actually an offshoot of Lupercalia."
    https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-rome/lupercalia

    Lupercalia was an ancient pagan festival held each year in Rome on February 15. Although Valentine’s Day shares its name with a martyred Christian saint, some historians believe the holiday is actually an offshoot of Lupercalia. Unlike Valentine’s Day, however, Lupercalia was a bloody, violent and sexually charged celebration awash with animal sacrifice, random matchmaking and coupling in the hopes of warding off evil spirits and infertility.  No one knows the exact origin of Lupercalia, but it has been traced back as far as the 6th century B.C.

    According to Roman legend, the ancient King Amulius ordered Romulus and Remus—his twin nephews and founders of Rome—to be thrown into the Tiber River to drown in retribution for their mother’s broken vow of celibacy.

    A servant took pity on them, however, and placed them inside a basket on the river instead. The river-god carried the basket and the brothers downriver to a wild fig tree where it became caught in the branches. The brothers were then rescued and cared for by a she-wolf in a den at the base of Palatine Hill where Rome was founded.

    The twins were later adopted by a shepherd and his wife and learned their father’s trade. After killing the uncle who’d ordered their death, they found the cave den of the she-wolf who’d nurtured them and named it Lupercal.

    It’s thought Lupercalia took place to honor the she-wolf and please the Roman fertility god Lupercus.

    Ritual Sacrifice----   Lupercalia rituals took place in a few places: Lupercal cave, on Palatine Hill and within the Roman open-air, public meeting place called the Comitium. The festival began at Lupercal cave with the sacrifice of one or more male goats—a representation of sexuality—and a dog.

    The sacrifices were performed by Luperci, a group of Roman priests. Afterwards, the foreheads of two naked Luperci were smeared with the animals’ blood using the bloody, sacrificial knife. The blood was then removed with a piece of milk-soaked wool as the Luperci laughed.

    "The history of Valentine's Day is mushy."
    https://www.cbsnews.com/news/valentines-cards-gifts-modern-traditions/

    Inside the origins of modern Valentine's Day celebrations
    By Luis Giraldo      February 14, 2025 / 7:00 AM EST / CBS News

    It's been linked to a 12th-century poem about birds mating, the Christian-martyr-turned-Saint Valentine and a deadly fertility ritual in ancient Rome, but Elizabeth Nelson, an associate professor of history at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, thinks that's all a stretch.

    "We want there to be an origin," Nelson said. "We don't want this to be just a holiday invented by Hallmark."

    It wasn't.

    Where did modern Valentine's Day traditions come from?
    "The history of Valentine's Day that Americans sort of adopt and enjoy is the history that comes from England," Nelson said.

    Samuel Pepys, an English businessman and politician, wrote about Valentine's Day in the 15th century. Here's an excerpt from his diary:

    "So up I went and took Mrs. Martha for my Valentine (which I do only for complacency), and Sir W. Batten he go in the same manner to my wife, and so we were very merry."

    "Those diary entries get entered into the history as evidence of its ancient origin," Nelson said.

    "One of the things that's interesting about how Valentine's Day was celebrated then is that even married people are having valentines who aren't their spouses," Nelson said. "It really seems like a kind of ritual of friendship rather than a kind of make-or-break romantic love holiday."

  • sillysassysillysassy

    I personally haven't devoted that much time to uncovering the TRUTH about Valentine's Day. Instead, I am interested in focusing my energy on what I was taught in my youth and whether or not I'm going to continue on that trajectory. I have decided that certain aspects I will keep as tradition and others... I REJECT out of hand.

    I have seen so many people in my life feel joy at Valentine's Day and still others a deep dark despair. It hurts my heart a little bit... on both accounts actually. How can ONE DAY be the only time we share our hearts with people we care about?

    A Little Backstory
    I grew up in classrooms that were small and Valentine's Day was another month that we got to work toward a fun crafting project in school. I LOVED IT!!!

    We were taught that even if we weren't the best of friends with everyone in the class we could find something kind to say to everyone. It wasn't a crazy romantic holiday in my world. It wasn't the way my Dad treated my Mom to an expensive piece of jewerly or a dozen roses. My Mom taught me that it was a day spent telling people we cared about them. Loved them. On many different levels. Friendships. Family members. And romantic partners if they were in your life.

    It wasn't until Middle School (and also a new school) that it started getting wierd.

    The VAL-O-GRAM............................................................

    If you didn't get a Construction Paper Heart from a girlfriend/boyfriend or an anoymous love.... you were NOT part of the cool crowd. These cost $1 and it was a fundraiser for the football team. Sigh.....

    I didn't have a ton of money at the time (and of course I was REALLY good at crafting) so I continued to make Valentine's for my friends. I was a bit bummed that we were "too old" to have Valentine's day parties with shoeboxes that we converted to collection boxes. There were also so many kids that were NOT kind to each other. And so my tradition continued with my group of friends and teachers, etc. Leaving notes in lockers or baking treats and putting a ribbon on a baggie of snacks. This was just **another ** day of telling someone that I cared about them. How much fun is that?

    My heart hurts for those who feel lonely, neglected by a partner, isolated, or unloveable. I hope you don't let this day convince you of something that isn't true.

    You are worth loving.

    (Maybe you can make sure you are the one doing the majority of the loving, because if you can't love you, its tough for other people to fill that deep need .)

  • [Deleted User]croozin37 (deleted user)

    Why devote a single day to show someone you love them? If you expend the energy on only a single day then what’s the rest of the year like?

  • [Deleted User]CharlesGrove (deleted user)

    Everything is a lie we tell ourselves, or others, to make our conscious existence less terrifying.

    The lies that get repeated often enough become culture.

  • IronicMaidenIronicMaiden

    @croozin37 At least two days if you include Sweetest Day.

  • RapidCuddlesRapidCuddles
    edited February 2025

    It's hammer time. [-Sid]

  • BearBear

    Happy Lupercalia

    Pagan origins
    Lupercalia: A Roman festival celebrated in mid-February to honor the fertility god Lupercus. The festival included fertility rites, animal sacrifices, and pairing off men and women by lottery.

  • CuddleDuncanCuddleDuncan Mod

    The history of Valentines Day is indeed a bit murky, as much history is. But according to Wikipedia the Feast of Saint Valentine, also known as Saint Valentine's Day, was established by Pope Gelasius I in AD 496.

    The point I'm making is that people living in western European culture have been doing something on 14 February for over 1,500 years or more. When the Norsemen/Vikings first settled in what is now Canada (some 500 years before Christopher Columbus did his thing) Valentines Day had already been going about 500 years. Lupercalia and its direct predecessors maybe another thousand years before that. Worth a moment of ponder time, I feel.

  • SideonSideon

    A Quiet Kind of Love

    Not the roses in cellophane,
    not the sugar-scripted words,
    but the hush between heartbeats,
    but how the trees bend a little
    as if listening when you speak.

    Love is quieter than we think -
    as a coat draped over tired shoulders,
    an offered last slice of bread,
    an invitation held open, sweetly,
    patiently there at the threshold;
    not pressing, nor retreating,
    but just there - steady and unwavering.

    And when you are ready,
    when your hands are empty of expectation,
    you will see it was never far away,
    just waiting to be met.

    Even the river knows,
    as it curls its silver arms around the shore,
    whisper over and over,
    I am here, I am here.

    -from "Rivers in the Ocean"

  • TheFunCartelTheFunCartel
    edited February 2025

    This video makes me want a chocolate spa treatment. And it sums up the current state of the day.

  • TeddyBear4u2024TeddyBear4u2024

    Valentines adjacent question...what time does the chocolate got 50% off? Curious minds need to know.

  • Janelle19Janelle19

    I don't hear these questions on Thanksgiving or any other holiday thats a huge lie lol. Just let me have my reason to go shopping and send myself flowers.and I won't remind you native Americans never hunted turkeys, or all the genocide

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