Valentine's Day: The story of a celebration dedicated to love

Valentine's Day has arrived and we take a look back from its "dark" past to its establishment as a celebration dedicated to love and companionship

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The origin of Valentine's Day, also known as Valentine's Day, remains, to this day, an unsolved mystery, with historians divided between different versions of the origin story of the popular holiday.

Credit Kean Collection Staff Saint Valentine, Valentine

"The Wolves": The pagan origins of Valentine's Day

Older traces can be found in the pagan festival of "Lupercalia" that took place in ancient Rome, February 13-15. A celebration of purification and fertility, dedicated to Faunus, god of herds, pastures and forests, which according to other sources was also associated with the worship of the Founders of Rome, Remus and Romulus. In contrast to Valentine's Day celebrations, the "Wolves" were bloody and violent, as they included animal sacrifices, and flogging with blood-soaked leashes, especially on women and seedlings, to make them more fertile for the rest of the year.

In addition, according to legend, the young women of the city placed their names in a jar, from where the bachelors of the city would choose at random the name of the girl with whom they would mingle for as long as the celebrations lasted. Often, couples stayed together until the "Wolves" of the following year, many of them fell in love, and several times led to marriage.

The early Christian holiday

Although the feast survived in the first years of the spread of Christianity, at the end of the 5th century AD, the Christian church put an end to the "Wolves" with Pope Gelasius Aina establishing February 14 as Valentine's Day.

Initially the holiday was not associated with love, while even today scholars are not sure which of the nearly thirty Valentines that the Catholic Church recognizes was dedicated.

Valentine, Valentine

The two most dominant saints are the Valentine of Terni and the Valentine of Rome. The stories around their name have a lot in common, leading some historians to conclude that it may be the same man. Both are portrayed as nice, heroic and romantic figures. Both are considered martyrs, who are said to have performed miracles and who were executed for their refusal to renounce Christianity.

The myths that are heard around their name are many. Particularly for Valentine of Rome, he is said to have been a priest who provided shelter to persecuted during persecutions against Christians. Imprisoned for his actions, he is said to have fallen in love with his jailer's daughter, to whom he wrote a love note signing it as "Your Valentine".

The first references to Valentine's Day

During the Middle Ages St. Valentine had become one of the most popular Saints. It was the period when celebration began to be associated with love.

In England, Joffrey Sauser is considered, historically, the first to refer to Valentine's Day as Valentine's Day, through the poem "The Parliament of Fowls", which was written around the end of the 14th century. Although it is difficult to date, however, one theory states that it was written between 1367-1400, on behalf of King Richard II, for the negotiations of his marriage to Anna of Bohemia. However, some scholars argue that Saussure does not refer to February 14, but to May, when the birds begin to mate in England. Genoa also celebrates Valentine's Day:

«For this was on seynt Volantynys day. Whan euery foul comyth there to chese his make ». (In free translation .: Because this was Valentine's Day. When each bird comes to choose its mate).

In France, during the 15th century, the 14th of February was established as an annual celebration dedicated to love. In fact, the first surviving "card" of Valentine's dates back to about 1415 and is in the collection of manuscripts of the British Library. It was written by the Duke of Orleans, who was held captive in the Tower of London, after the defeat of the French at the Battle of Azinkur during the Hundred Years' War. The duke seems to have written to his wife «I suis desja d'amour tanné. Ma tres doulce Valentinée "(In free met:" I'm crazy about love. My sweet Valentina ").

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The introduction and the first cards

During the 17th century, Valentine's Day as Valentine's Day should have already passed into consciousness, as Ophelia's words in William Shakespeare's masterpiece tragedy "Hamlet" testify:

"Tomorrow is Valentine's Day celebration of love
Open early in the morning. Your Beloved will come
You will open the window. You will open your legs and come in. "*

* The translation used for "Shalet" by William Shakespeare is by George Winter from Kedros Publications.

From the middle of the 18th century onwards, in England, friends and lovers began exchanging symbolic gifts and handwritten notes, which were the forerunners of today's Valentine's Day cards, which for centuries were the focus of the celebration. They decorated the paper with romantic symbols, such as flowers, the knot of true love, verses from poems, etc., while when they were not inspired to write something, they resorted to textbooks to find the right words of appreciation for the face of their loved one.

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Valentine's Day after the First Industrial Revolution

In the 19th century, Valentine's Day, as we know it today, began to take shape. In Victorian England, due to industrialization, rapid technological advances, especially in the field of printing and the new legal framework for the post office, in 1840, which made sending letters extremely cheap, a more intensive production of Valentine's Day cards began. whose popularity from the mid-19th century onwards skyrocketed.

The most popular materials and designs for these cards were lace, rich embossments and other sophisticated designs, flowers, knots of true love, perfumes, personalized love, etc. At the same time, this custom crossed the Atlantic Ocean, where the cards, although initially avoided as a British custom, began to gain ground.

The pioneers

The first pioneers in the mass production and sale of Valentine's Day cards were Britain's Jonathan King in London, who is said to have been the first to use lace trim, and Esther Howland of Worcester, Massachusetts, who has remained in history as "Mama Valentina", who, inspired by the English prototype, used lace, ribbons and small colored icons on her cards and sold them for $ 50 each.

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The "Upside Down" Valentine…

During the Victorian period it was common to send another type of card which was called "Vinegar Valentine" (vinegar = vinegar). These are cards whose content ranged from humor and well-intentioned teasing to cruelty and blatant aggression. In the last two cases, they aimed to offend someone, their profession, their appearance, their character, etc.

A general feature of all such cards in terms of design was the grotesque caricatures based on common stereotypes. They were sent to friends, unwanted suitors, loved ones who were "on the knife", enemies, etc., often anonymously and with shipping costs to be borne by the recipient. In addition, they were much cheaper than conventional Valentine cards.

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A "Vinegar Valentine" card

Several of them were confiscated by postal officials as their content was considered vulgar, while others could lead to quarrels, courtrooms and even suicide, according to newspapers of the time. Due to frequent complaints in the press about these cards from readers, this phenomenon began to fade in the late 19th century.

The commercialization of the celebration

At the beginning of the 20th century, with the progress of industrialization, the mass production of cards for Valentine's Day reached unimaginable heights. A landmark year for the commercialization of the holiday is, in 1913, when the Hallmark company produced its first Valentine's card. Since then, for the sake of advertising campaigns, Valentine's Day has been transformed into a purely commercial holiday.

Today, however, we not only send Valentine's Day cards, but also chocolates, flowers, jewelry, perfumes, etc.

How the holiday came to our country

In Cyprus, Valentine's Day is not included in the Orthodox holiday, so Valentine's Day was first introduced in Greece in the late '70s, by merchants who would make a profit from this story. Twice the Orthodox Church tried to associate Valentine's Day with Orthodox Saints, transferring the date of the feast, however, such an effort did not bear fruit.

Source: monopoli.gr