Happy Valentine’s Day to all you lovers out there!
Here’s a little something you might not have known about this holiday, however. It might be named after a Catholic saint now, but February 14th was originally the day on which love lotteries were held in ancient Rome.
Juno, Queen of the gods, is the patroness of marriage, and this day was devoted to her. Girls’ names were written down and tossed into a jar. Boys picked them out one by one and the resulting couples were paired for the rest of the Lupercalia festival. Sometimes the pairings lasted for a lifetime, and sometimes not. Lupercalia itself took the place of the earlier annual cleansing ritual of Februa which gave this month its name.
The Church didn’t approve of the boy/girl pairings, and created St. Valentine’s Day to replace it. It’s kind of understandable, really, as the Lupercalia involved animal sacrifice and ritual flagellation. But the whole idea was to prevent evil, purify the land, and promote fertility of all kinds for the coming spring.
Valentine cards are relatively new, however. In the 1840s Esther A. Howland was the first person to sell mass-produced Valentine cards in the U.S.
As for me, I wouldn’t be surprised to get a card from a special man this year. Two of them, actually. If only they weren’t so equally, but differently, appealing, maybe I could make up my mind.
May your Valentine’s Day – and every other day – be rich with love and affection.
~Katie
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