Another Valentine's Day. Peachy or should I say Strawberry because that goes better with chocolate? Either way, this ranks up there among holidays that I find to be rather silly, cute, but still silly.
I like flowers. I love chocolate. Cards are nice. However, I like flowers that are alive and in my garden so I can look at them for more than a week. This has alot to do with my pollen issues. I like pollen to be outside. The flowers will die and end up setting around and shriveling, a living plant or a few packets of flower seeds would be in my opinion, alot nicer. I can't think of many things more delicious than chocolates, but do I really need to eat an entire box? No I don't. But that would be exactly what would happen because I flunked sharing in Kindergarten and never have the desire to share chocolate of any kind with anyone, unless it's nasty and I just want to see if someone else will eat it. That is some good info to tuck away for future reference. If I offer to share some chocolate, I probably think its nasty. Unless of course I am trying to get something from you, in that case, most people don't need to worry, Bill might need to worry ;)
And well its hard to complain about a card, but one could always just save the money and say it. Saves Time and Money. But I know some people, sometimes have a difficult time expressing themselves, so cards are okay, I guess. But 80% of Valentines day cards are purchased by women. Hmmmm.
Moving right along to another issue with Valentines Day. Just one day? Really? Every single day should be an occasion to express to someone how important they are to you. Not just once a year. Everyday. This can be done quite cheaply. Little notes are good or hey you could just say something. If the point of today is to celebrate the deeds of Saint Valentine, which might be hard to do, since there appears to have been more than one, We should probably do something nice for people in general. But what would depend on what story you believe.
There are alot of stories concerning how the day came about and exactly who St. Valentine was. Apparently there were three or so. All were martyred. So we have three men, who in one way or another, believed in something and were killed for their beliefs and we get flowers and chocolate out of it.
Here are a few quick rundowns of the stories I like best.
#1
One story says that Valentine was a priest who served during the 3rd century in Rome. Emperor Claudius II felt that single men made better soldiers so he outlawed marriage for them. Valentine, thought this was a dumb idea and performed marriages in secret. When Claudius found out, he had Valentine put to death.
Now, that is pretty romantic, not for Valentine, but from this one I can almost see the reason to celebrate. But maybe with wide scale marriages.
#2
Another popular story is that Valentine helped Christians escape from Roman prisons, where they were probably tortured and beaten.
That's the whole story, so not seeing any romance there. So if you go with this one how would you celebrate? Freeing political prisoners?? Maybe. Not sure on this one. Unless maybe we could make it a "let's not torture or beat anyone today', Day.
#3
Now in this other story, Valentine sent the first 'Valentine' himself. Supposedly he was in prison and fell in love with the jailer's daughter. At his death he sent her a love letter signed "From Your Valentine". Ah isn't that sweet, but wasn't he a priest? celibate? She was probably very cute and nice he just forgot. Another romantic one.
Here is another theory.
Perhaps the Christian Church decided to celebrate in the middle of February, to further Christianize" celebrations of the pagan Lupercalia festival. At the time, in Rome, February was the official beginning of spring and a time for purification. Houses were ritually cleansed by sweeping them out and then sprinkling salt and a type of wheat called spelt throughout the inside of the home. Lupercalia, which began at the ides of February, February 15, was a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, as well as to the Roman founders Romulus and Remus.
Now, I will skip gory details but in a nutshell, animals were sacrificed and women were touched by the hides of the animals, believing it to make them more fertile. The woman put their names in a large urn and bachelors picked names out and they paired off. These usually resulted in marriages. Pope Gelasius declared February 14 St. Valentine's Day around 498 A.D. The Roman "lottery" system for romantic pairing was deemed un-Christian and outlawed.
So there you go. Your guess as to what is true, is as good as mine.
But what I want to know why more people don't get married on Valentine's day? If you think this little rant on Valentine's Day was irritating, just wait till Easter. I have plenty to say about that holiday. :)
Enjoy your Flowers, Chocolate and Cards :)
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