Do you have a Valentine this year? Valentine’s Day is love/hate holiday. Most people either love it or hate it, and usually their feelings are based on their dating status at that time of the year.
Valentine’s Day is actually Saint Valentine’s Day, which is a Catholic saint feast day. Now, here is the tricky part, there are five Saint Valentine’s. The one that has his feast day on February 14th is Saint Valentine of Rome.
The official Catholic reason for Saint Valentine’s sainthood is that during the reign of Claudius II, Saint Valentine helped the martyred Christians of Rome. He was finally arrested and when he refused to renounce his Christian faith, he was beaten to death with a club. Not exactly a story that evokes romantics thoughts, huh?
So why does the North America and half of Europe celebrate the Catholic feast day of a clubbed Saint? Because, the official story isn’t the only story, that’s why.
Legend has it that Saint Valentine wasn’t just a help to persecuted Christians but to persecuted lovers as well. Claudius II wasn’t just known for clubbing saints to death. He was also known as quite the warmonger. He needed young men to fill out his armies, but found that married young men did not want to go to war. His solution? Outlaw marriages. Saint Valentine went against the law and married young couples in secret. Eventually the secret got out and Saint Valentine was arrested and then beaten to death with a club. The legend leaves you with more of a warm fuzzy feeling than the official story, doesn’t it?
The romantic legend is half the reason we celebrate Saint Valentine’s Day. The other half has to do with ancient fertility celebrations that were traditionally held in the month of February.
When the Church outlawed these pagan celebrations, the pagans still participated the fertility celebrations, but under the guise of Saint Valentine’s feast day. It only makes sense since everyone knows what romance eventually leads to.
So this Valentine’s Day, you now have two ways to look at this luvy-dubby holiday. One in which a hero of love sacrificed his life for the ideals of love or how some guy was beat to a bloody pulp. As we said before, it’s a holiday you either love or hate.
For more information about Valentine’s Day, visit the About.com article on the History of Valentine’s Day.