Valentine’s Day wasn’t always hearts and flowers.
This day of love began with a most charming ritual. In ancient times Roman men would go into a cave and sacrifice a goat, then take the hide and cut it into strips.
Then they would get roaring drunk, remove their toga and chase girls around town whipping them with the goat hide. Ahh, romance.
Then at the height of this love fest called Lupercalia, the names of women were put into a jar and the men would pick out a name and spend a joyous 3 days with the girl they picked. They skipped the flowers and took it to the next level.
That’s how it started. Valentine’s Day has changed a little since then, but the ritual of drunken men chasing ladies around has survived into modern times.
Needless to say, when Christianity showed up, whipping women with goat hides was frowned upon. On February 14 the men still chased women, but kept their clothes on and, bummers, no goat whips.
So who was this Saint Valentine who gave his name to this romantic holiday?
There are a few suspects. The first one was a priest in Rome named Valentinus.
At around 210 AD, the emperor Claudius II thought that single men made better soldiers, so he outlawed marriage. He thought chasing ladies around toughened them up. But Valentinus, feeling sorry for those wanting to marry, had marriage ceremonies in secret. He was found out and lost his head.
Men still lose their head when they forget to send a card to their girlfriend.
The next Mr. Valentine lived around the same time. His crime was helping Christians escape the cruel Romans. He was thrown in prison and fell in love with the jailer’s daughter and wrote her a note, “from your Valentine.” After 1,800 years the copyright on this phrase ran out and Hallmark picked it up.
Being in jail is always a plus for sainthood, so he got the job as Saint Valentine.
This romantic day went on for centuries until the bawdy poet, Geoffrey Chaucer showed up and noticed that birds mate in February. So in 1375 he wrote a poem about it. He probably started the idea of the birds and the bees.
The next Valentine superstar was a Frenchman named Charles of Orleans. After losing a big battle to the English, he was thrown in jail in 1415. He is credited with writing the first Valentine card. He wrote it to his wife. He had to, as back then there were no visiting hours in the dungeon.
From Europe the big love day came to America. Into the 1800s friends and lovers gave each other gifts and cards on February 14.
It’s continued to this day. We devote one day to love, let’s keep it going into the other 364.
We are the Aloha State. This means our little islands are the only place in the whole world named for love.
Happy Valentine’s Day.
Dennis Gregory writes a bi-monthly column for West Hawaii Today and welcomes your comments at makewavess@yahoo.com
