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About Valentine's Day
Valentine’s Day is a popular observance around the world and has been increasing in popularity in India in recent years.Many people in the world, including in India, put aside one day of the year – February 14 in Gregorian calendar – to celebrate love. Images of cupid, hearts, roses and love birds are seen everywhere on this day.Valentine Day is Known as "Festival of Love" , " Festival of Romance".People who would like to have a romantic relationship with somebody may use the occasion to make this known, often anonymously. Valentine's cards are often decorated with images of hearts, red roses or Cupid.During the festival, young men would draw the names of women from a box, and each couple would be paired until next year’s celebration. Often they would fall in love and marry. St Valentine's Day is an annual festival to celebrate romantic love, friendship and admiration. Every year on 14 February people celebrate this day by sending messages of love and affection to partners, family and friends. Couples send Valentine's Day cards and flowers and spend special time together to honour their love for each other.Valentine's Day is not a public holiday. Government offices, stores, schools and other organizations are open as usual. Public transit systems run on their regular schedule. Restaurants may be busier than usual as many people go out for an evening with their spouse or partner. Valentine's Day is also a very popular date for weddings.
While some believe that Valentine's Day is celebrated in the middle of February to commemorate the anniversary of Valentine's death or burial--which probably occurred around A.D. 270-others claim that the Christian church may have decided to place St. Valentine's feast day in the middle of February in an effort to "Christianize" the pagan celebration of Lupercalia. Celebrated at the ides of February, or February 15, Lupercalia was a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, as well as to the Roman founders Romulus and Remus.
To begin the festival, members of the Luperci, an order of Roman priests, would gather at a sacred cave where the infants Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, were believed to have been cared for by a she-wolf or lupa. The priests would sacrifice a goat, for fertility, and a dog, for purification. They would then strip the goat's hide into strips, dip them into the sacrificial blood and take to the streets, gently slapping both women and crop fields with the goat hide. Far from being fearful, Roman women welcomed the touch of the hides because it was believed to make them more fertile in the coming year. 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 each choose a name and become paired for the year with his chosen woman. These matches often ended in marriage.
To begin the festival, members of the Luperci, an order of Roman priests, would gather at a sacred cave where the infants Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, were believed to have been cared for by a she-wolf or lupa. The priests would sacrifice a goat, for fertility, and a dog, for purification. They would then strip the goat's hide into strips, dip them into the sacrificial blood and take to the streets, gently slapping both women and crop fields with the goat hide. Far from being fearful, Roman women welcomed the touch of the hides because it was believed to make them more fertile in the coming year. 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 each choose a name and become paired for the year with his chosen woman. These matches often ended in marriage.
History of Valentine's Day
Valentine's Day is named after Saint Valentine, a Catholic priest who lived in Rome in the 3rd Century. There are many stories about St Valentine and over time these stories grew into the legend we know today.The history of Valentine's Day is obscure, and further clouded by various fanciful legends. The holiday's roots are in the ancient Roman festival of Lupercalia, a fertility celebration commemorated annually on February 15. Pope Gelasius I recast this pagan festival as a Christian feast day circa 496, declaring February 14 to be St. Valentine's Day.
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.
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. According to one legend, an imprisoned Valentine
actually sent the first "valentine" greeting himself after he fell in
love with a young girl--possibly his jailor's daughter--who visited him
during his confinement. Before his death, it is alleged that he wrote
her a letter signed "From your Valentine," an expression that is still
in use today. Although the truth behind the Valentine legends is murky,
the stories all emphasize his appeal as a sympathetic, heroic and--most
importantly--romantic figure. By the Middle Ages, perhaps thanks to this
reputation, Valentine would become one of the most popular saints in
England and France.
