VALENTINE’S DAY – Brief History
Unknown to many, valentine’s day is actually the feast for the commemoration for St. Valentine who martyred for faith.
It begun during when Christianity is not yet accepted by pagan Roman Empire.
Rome at that time is pagan empire, and being pagan they have many false gods, that sometime offered a feast for one of these false gods.
One of roman pagan festival is “Lupercalia” which traditionally celebrated by mid-February (15th), when young men draw the girl name into the box that men would be with him, and so, a lot of the men fell in love in their girl, and got married and did not want to go to battle.
So the roman emperor forbid marriage, he insisted that no soldiers should get married for them to be a better soldier as a single men for his army. Because married soldiers normally might be afraid of what might happen to them or their wives or families if they died.
But the church disagreed with this, they would marry them if they wanted, so a Christian priest in Rome named, Valentine continued to perform marriage for these couples secretly so that the husbands could avoid military service.
However, when the emperor found out of this violation, St. Valentine was arrested and imprisoned, while in custody, he converted 46 members of a guards family to Christianity, upon discovering it, Claudius sentenced him to death, then, from there as he awaits his execution, he do some miracles like curing a blind.
Today, Valentine’s Day is celebrated every February 14th of the year in many countries around the world, (although it is not a holiday in most of them) in which millions of couple express their cherish love for each other and traditionally exchanging affectionate messages and gifts.
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► [ WHEN WAS VALENTINE’S DAY FIRST CELEBRATED? ]
● Valentine’s day started around (498 AD.) it was celebrated in Rome. That year the Christianity was already legal on the empire, so Christians freely to proclaim their feast & celebration. Since then, the church eventually recognized him to be known as the patron of lovers and happy marriages.
► [ WHY VALENTINE’S DAY IS FEBRUARY 14th? ] The date of modern Valentine’s Day is simply based on the feast day of St. Valentine, who was martyred (was killed due to faith) on February 14 in the 2nd century A.D.
