Valentine”s Day is coming.
The day of love, cards, gifts, chocolates, dinner dates and so forth.
However, most people have absolutely no clue as to what Valentine”s Day is really all about or why it was celebrated in the first place.
According to stories recorded in the “Legenda Aurea,” a hagiography compiled by Jacobus de Voragine or biography of saints: Emperor Claudius II of Rome, who was a Pagan, established a rule that all men serving in the military could not be married as he felt the connection to a family would cause the men to act in cowardice on the battlefield.
Saint Valentine, a Christian priest, was secretly performing marriages for the soldiers to their sweethearts despite what the Emperor said.
He was eventually caught, arrested and executed for his practicing of the Christian faith and his breaking of the law.
When the Roman Catholic Church grew to power, a day was established to honor Saint Valentine for his service to the lord and fellow man.
Thence: Valentine”s Day.
Now, the stories in the “Legenda Aurea” have been open for debate on whether most of them are actually based in fact or are merely tall-tales; the story of Saint Valentine has been translated differently in various cultures and many facts have been added through the years, making it difficult to decipher what is truth and what is fabrication.
In one version of Valentine”s tale, he supposedly fell in love with the daughter of a jailer when he was imprisoned after he had healed her blindness. They would secretly write letters to one another and he would always sign it, “From Your Valentine.” This is supposedly where we get the tradition of love letters and cards signed as Valentines.
There is much debate about this version of the story and whether it was concocted by the American Greeting/Hallmark companies to fuel sales or not; there really is no ancient text to back this claim.
Many icons that circulate during Valentine”s Day are also symbolic with religious roots: Doves are used to symbolize true and everlasting love, as it says in the New Testament Matthew Ch.13 Vs.16-17, when Christ was baptized and rose from the water, the Holy Ghost descended as a dove from heaven.
Since then, doves have constantly been associated with love and peace in religious context.
Cupid, also known as Eros, is the son of Aphrodite/Venus and is the messenger of his mother, the Goddess of Love and Beauty. His duty is to strike the hearts of mortals with his arrows in order to fill them with love. However, he was never to know love for himself.
In myth he broke this law by falling in love with a woman named Psyche, angering his mother who then sought to destroy her because she would not allow him to forsake his duties and leave her. Cupid defied his mother for his own love and thence, he has become a great symbol of passion around the world.
“X”s” used to signify kisses have an interesting history: during the middle ages many people could not write and so, when they were signing an important government document they would make an X and then kiss it to mark their sincerity.
Priests were usually present to bear witness for the “holiness of the deal.”
There are other theories for the use of the X, but this one is the most commonly accepted.
Oysters are a common food served on Valentine”s day based upon the myth of Aphrodite/Venus being born from an oyster and rising from the sea; oysters are also known to be strong aphrodisiacs and thence, fueled the idea of the association with the Goddess of love.
There you have it, a new way to look at your Valentine”s Day this year.
When Michelle Berger is not writing, she”s usually re-enacting famous fight scenes from Kung-Fu flicks. Reach her at mberger_om@yahoo.com.
