Valentino diena

The day of Valentine is related even to two Valentines. One of the legends says that St. Valentine was one of the first Christians. In these days new religion meant danger and death. Valentine was helping Christian martyrs and for that he was arrested and sent to jail. On jail he cured prisoners daughter from blindness. Emperor ordered to behead him. In the day of death St. Valentine left a farewell note for the jailer_s daughter and signed it „From YYour Valentine“. Other Valentine mentioned by history was a priest who lived in times of Emperor Claudius II. Rome was involved in many bloody and unpopular campaigns. Claudius the Cruel was having a difficult time getting soldiers to join his military leagues. He believed that the reason was that roman men did not want to leave their loves or families. As a result, Claudius cancelled all marriages and engagements in Rome. The good Saint Valentine aided the Christian martyrs and ssecretly married couples, and for this kind deed Saint Valentine was apprehended and condemned to. Many young people came to the jail to visit him. They threw flowers and notes up to his window. He died on the 14th day oof February, in 269.

So the date of Valentine’s death coincided with the festival of Lupercalia. The authorities of young Christianity seek to push out pagan religions and their gods. But people didn’t like to renounce their traditions and festivals, so frequently old feasts just received new names and sense. In 496 AD Pope Gelasius set aside February 14 to honor St. Valentine.

Lupercalius was a festival of spring and love. In its eve the game of “love lotteries” was played. The names of Roman girls were written on slips of paper and placed into jars. Each young man would draw a girl_s name from the jar and would then be partners for the duration of the festival with the girl wwhom he chose. Another ritual involved youths of noble birth to run through the streets with goatskin thongs. Young women would crowd the street in the hope of lashing the sacred thongs, as it was believed to make them better able to bear children. The goatskin thongs were known as the februa and the lashing the februatio, both coming from a Latin word meaning to purify. The name of the month February came from this meaning.

During the medieval days oof chivalry, the “love lotteries” persisted – the names of English maidens and bachelors were put into the box and drawn out in pairs. Each couple exchanged gifts. The girl became the man_s valentine for that year. On his sleeve he wore her name and it was his bounded duty to attend and protect her.

This old, old custom of drawing names on the fourteenth of February was considered a good omen for love. It often foretold a wedding. For since the beginning of things this has been lovers_ day, a time for loving, for giving and receiving love tokens.

History tells us the first modern valentines date from the early years of the fifteenth century. The young French duke of Orleans, captured at the battle, was kept a prisoner in the Tower of London for many years. To his wife he wrote poem after poem, real valentines. About sixty of them remain. These can be seen among the royal papers in the British Museum.

Flowers as valentines appear nearly two hundred years later. A daughter of Henry IV of France gave a party in honor of St. Valentine. Each lady received a beautiful bouquet of flowers from the man cchosen as her valentine.

A heart is common symbol of love, especially on Valentines Day. Candies, candles, boxes, postcards of its shape. Hearts made of chocolate, paper, fabric; they decorate various stuff and even clothes. In early times, the liver was the part of the body that symbolized love. But hearts have long been connected with feelings of love. After all, you can feel your heart beating faster when seeing someone you love excites you. That_s probably how it all got started. By the way, scientists think that emotions actually begin in your brain, not in heart.

Other important symbol of love is little angel who is scapegracely shooting love arrows. Cupid, the chubby cherub with a bow and arrow, dates all the way back to the myths of ancient Greece. In those days he was known as Eros. He was the son of Aphrodite, the goddess of love. The Romans later adopted much of Greek culture. They called the goddess of love Venus and her son, Cupid. In Latin, the language of ancient Rome, the word cupido means desire. As a messenger of his mother, the goddess of love, Cupid would shoot his arrows, and those struck by the aarrows would fall in love. He can burn even coldest hearts. Dear readers, we wish you to be careful in this month of love and spring! Maybe this spoilt angel is close?