WHERE DID VALENTINES DAY COME FROM? The Origin of Valentine’s Day: The Christian history attributes many different origins of this day. But it is not really a Christian festivals at all, since it is know from history (mentioned in Encyclopedia Britannica) that the in the ancient pagan culture of Rome and Greece, the month of February was always considered as a month of romance, fertility and spring, and history proves that St. Valentines day originated from two most perverted and obscene Roman festivals of fertility called Lupercalia and Feast of Juno Februata both celebrated on the 15 th of February.. Lupercalia This festival celebrated on 15th of February was held to celebrate fertility in the honor of roman god Lupercus also called Faunus, an embodiment of fertility and lust. He had the head and torso of a man, but the hindquarters and horns of a goat The ceremony began with the sacrifice of goats and a dog. The youths were anointed with their blood. They were made to wear goat skins (to impersonate Lupercus) and small pieces of goat skin were cut into long strips called Februa. The youths then ran around, striking at any woman that came near them with this Februa. This was considered to bestow fertility to the woman. Feast of Juno Februata: The feast of goddess Juno Februa was celebrated after the ceremony of Lupercalia. Juno Februa was the roman goddess of love, marriage and women. For this feast, women wrote their names on slips of papers and men would take the slips out. The woman whose name was on the slip would become his partner for the day’s l festivities. Christianizing Lupercalia and Juno Februata Christianity was greatly influenced by the Roman pagan philosophy during the reign of the Roman Emperor Constantine I (288 – 337 AD) who accepted Christianity but Pagan festivals continued under his empire and pagan philosophy also integrated into Christianity. It was in AD 494, that Pope Gelasius I decided to suppress the perverted pagan festivals. He replaced Lupercalia with the Feast of The Purification of Virgin Mary, celebrated till now on 15th of February by the Eastern Rite Catholic Churches. It is also said that he replaced the Feast of Juno Februata by St. Valentine’s Day and moved it to 14th February. Instead of lottery of girls, the lottery was replaced by names of Christian saints, whom the youths had to copy that day. Different stories and legends were made, attributed to many different people by the name of Valentine, to give credibility to Saint Valentines Day. The creation of a festival for such obscure figures further proves it was merely an attempt to white wash the pagan celebrations with a label of Christianity since they were not able to get rid them from their culture.
Posted on: Wed, 12 Feb 2014 05:35:31 +0000
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