Valentines Day


Valentines Day February 14th, every Year..

The 13th, 14th and 15th of February also celebrates the ancient Roman festival of Lupercalia, which some people consider the origin of valentines day itself.

The Romans celebrated the feast of Lupercalia between February 13 and 15th, and the celebrations included the sacrifice of a goat and a dog, and then the drunken, and often naked, Roman men would whip women with the hides of the animals they had just sacrificed. Noel Lenski, a historian at the University of Colorado at Boulder, states that the young women would actually line up for the men to hit them, believing this would make them more fertile.

The feast of St. Valentine of February 14 was first established in 496 by Pope Gelasius I
or
In 498, Pope Gelasius declared February 14 as St. Valentine’s Day.

There appear to be three Saint Valentines that appear in connection with February 14. A Roman priest, A bishop of Interamna and a third was said to be a saint in the Roman province of Africa.

Saint Valentine, the Roman Priest, was executed on February 14 in either 269 A.D. or 270 A.D.

Saint Valentine: Bishop of Interamna: This Saint Valentine is said to have been scourged, imprisoned and beheaded by Placidus, Prefect of Interanma.

Bishop Valentine of Interamna, Africa, was imprisoned and tortured in Rome on February 14, 273.

It has been stated that St Valentines day was actually created by the Catholic Church after the Emperor Claudius II, in the 3rd Century AD, executed two men on February 14 of different years. Both men were called Valentine. Their martyrdom was honoured by the Catholic Church with the celebration of St. Valentine’s Day.

However, Emperor Claudius II died in 270, while Bishop Valentine of Interamna died on Feb 14, 273. Three years after Claudius died. The first two St Valentines listed are often considered to be the same person, due to various similarities.

In the 5th Century, the Catholic Church, under Pope Gelasius I, combined St. Valentine’s Day with Lupercalia to try to lose the pagan ritual side of the festivals.


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