Why We Are Supposed To Give Gifts Or Cards On Valentine's Day
Rick London
As early as the fourth century B.C., the Romans engaged in an annual young man's rite to passage to the God Lupercus. The names of the teenage women were placed in a box and drawn at random by adolescent men; thus, a man was assigned a woman companion for the duration of the year, after which another lottery was staged. After eight hundred years of this cruel practice, the early church fathers sought to end this practice... They found an answer in Valentine, a bishop who had been martyred some two hundred years earlier.
For eight centuries, the practice later known as Valentine's Day was a cruel Roman ritual, actually a lottery of sorts. It all started in the 4th Century B.C.. A post-puberty young man's right to passage was to the God Lupercus. Names of teenage women were drawn from a box by the young men and they were assigned the woman for a year to do with as he pleased, within the restraints of Roman culture which were rather lax at the time. Finally in 4 A.D the early church leaders stopped the cruel practice after an evaluation of how it had been created in the first place.
Church records show that a priest who lived near Rome in 270 A.D., St Valentine was the inspiration. It was a time when Emperor Claudius 11 issued an edict forbidding marriage , as he felt married men were too emotionally attached to their families and did not make good fighters. On top of that, the Roman Empire was about to see its final days.
Secret hidden weddings had been performed by St. Valentine after he noticed the pain and suffering experienced by young lovers wanting to unite. He was soon caught and executed but not before Claudius tried to convert him, to save him from being terminated, to believe in the Roman gods, which Valentine would not change his Christian beliefs.
Valentine would have no part of it and on February 24th, 270, he was executed.
During Valentine's prison sentence, he came in contact with his jailer, Asterius who had a blind daughter. Asterius requested him to heal his daughter. Through his faith he miraculously restored the sight of Asterius' daughter. Just before his execution, he asked for a pen and paper from his jailer, and signed a farewell message to her "From Your Valentine," a phrase that has endured eternity.
Valentine was later named a Patron Saint, and spiritual overseer of an annual festival. The festival involved young Romans offering women they admired, and wished to court, handwritten greetings of affection on February 14. The greeting cards acquired St. Valentine's namesake and still has it.
The Valentine's Day card spread with Christianity, and is now celebrated all over the world, and of course is a nonsectarian holiday celebrated by almost all faiths, and people of none. One of the earliest Valentine's cards on record was sent in 1415 by Charles, Duke of Orleans, to his wife while he was a prisoner in the Tower of London. The card is now preserved in the British Museum.
Valentine's Day history was a surprise to me. I just discovered it today at age 53 and found it fascinating. So as an online retailer, what I decided to do was add a "Sex, Love, & Relationship" section to my main gift shop, and mark everything down up to 80% just through Valentine's day, just to make the Patron Saint proud. It can include a gift card and the customer does not have to sign it "From Your Valentine" but can if he/she wishes.
Cartoonist and history buff Rick London has marked down to 80% all his sex, love, and relationship gifts just for Valentines Day. He owns Funny Gift Shops http://www.ricklondoncollection.com/ Offbeat Valentines Presents, and
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