Valentines Day Special

So do any of us really know what we are celebrating on Valentines day? Is today a feast of a saint or was today really invented by Hallmark? Well, no Hallmark didn't invent the holiday, in true Hallmark style they took a holiday that had meaning (but like usual has lost it along the line) and turned the holiday into gift cards. I mean why not right? Isn't everything these days about spending money, you don't really love someone unless you spend money on them.
A year or two back I decided that I would send cards to the people I loved, including my parents and sister and close friends. My attempt to understand what this day was all about.

After reading the wiki (always the first stop) on valentines day and even looking into some christian websites, I pretty much found out one thing. No one really knows where Valentines day originated from. The popular theory is that the day is a feast day for 2 or 3 saints who share the name Valentine (apparently a popular name back then) yet only one of these saints did anything close to romantic.

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 — his crop of potential soldiers. 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, Valentine actually sent the first 'valentine' greeting himself. While in prison, it is believed that Valentine fell in love with a young girl — who may have been his jailor's daughter — who visited him during his confinement. Before his death, it is alleged that he wrote her a letter, which he signed 'From your Valentine,' an expression that is still in use today. Although the truth behind the Valentine legends is murky, the stories certainly emphasize his appeal as a sympathetic, heroic, and, most importantly, romantic figure. It's no surprise that by the Middle Ages, Valentine was one of the most popular saints in England and France.

But does that really make this saints feast day about love? Another theory that seems to fit is that this saints feast day was moved to February 14th to coincide with a Roman Pagan Festival of Lupercalia, a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, as well as to the Roman founders Romulus and Remus. This festival is over three days from the 13th to the 15th of February.

So, this tradition of love and gifts was originally a feast day turned into a fertility celebration turned into a day about spending money.

The Japanese celebrate the day as women give the men chocolate, yep this day is about the woman giving to the men and only chocolates. The women give chocolates even to male co-workers, these gifts are less expensive then the one given to their intended Valentine. A month later on March 14th the men return the favor on 'White Day' giving white chocolates that must be more expensive.If chocolates are giving that are less expensive the means the guy is wanting to cut the relationship off.