Redneck Bar & Grill

Just recently someone suggested to me that Valentine’s Day is a "holiday" that was made up the greeting card companies, florists and/or choclatiers just to make money.  I was skeptical as to whether or not this could be true, so I decided to do some research.  At first I was going to go to the library but after I stopped to pick up a six-pack of Blue Beaver I suddenly remembered that "they" have rules about drinking beer in public.  So I went home and started surfing the net for my answers.  I discovered some interesting things. 

There is some confusion about who St. Valentine actually was.  There are at least three different men who were all known as Valentine and were martyred.  One of them was marrying young men and women, against Emperor Claudius II’s laws (I guess he wanted all the young men to join the army).  He was arrested and sentenced to death.

Another Valentine was allegedly killed for helping Christians escape the harsh Roman prisons where they were being beaten and tortured.

Still another man, may have sent the very first "valentine’s card".  Supposedly while he was imprisoned for defying the Emperor, he fell in love with a young lady who visited him in jail.  Just before his death, he sent her a letter signed, "From your Valentine".

As for why we celebrate Valentine’s Day on Feb. 14th, some say that it is the day that one of the Valentine’s was killed (very romantic).  However, way back around the second or third century A.D. there was a Pagan Roman festival, called Lupercalia.  It was meant to celebrate the beginning of spring and was a time for purification.  There were animal sacrifices and blood sprayed around on people and crops in order to increase fertility.  Then all the young women in the city would put their names in an urn and all the bachelors would draw a name and then get to spend the year with her or they could get married if they wanted.

Then the church came along and decided that all this was far too un-Christian, so they dedicated the day to their own Saint. That way everyone would, in their minds, be celebrating the feast of St. Valentine instead of the feast of Lupercalia.

Over time the day became more and more infused with love and romance and such things until eventually people not only forgot the Pagan traditions but also the Christian ones as well.

So, Valentine’s Day was not made up by the greeting card companies; it was made up by the Christians.  But all of the best parts of the original traditions still exist.  Torture, suffering, persecution for getting married too young, guys hooking up with random girls at a party; all in all I think the pagans would be proud.

If you should like to know more about the Saints Valentine or the feast of Lupercalia or about how the pagan Romans were just as bad as the Christians try going here.