With Love : From your Valentine!!!

For quite some time, there is lots of hue and cry over Valentine's day...some people threatening of instant marriage to young love birds and others sending "pink chaddi's " to those so called orthodox people.But it seems that no one is honest in their views, for some this is just a mean to show their power and for some to bury themselves deep into growing materialization of love and PDA(public display of affection).


Between all this chaos... i just thought of finding out "What is the reason behind 14th February's celebrations?".... Here is what i could find...

History of Valentine's day

Looking simply at the romantic aspect of the day, then the history of Valentine’s Day goes back to the dawn of western civilization – February was always the month of love. Perhaps because there is a promise of spring ahead and the signs of fertility are all over. The ancient Greeks, governed by their passionate Gods had already set aside the days between mid-January to February to rejoice the love between Zeus and Hera. Later, the ancient Romans, celebrated February 15 as “Lupercalcia” as the day of love.The first actual renowned written romantic celebration in the history of Saint Valentine’s Day was in Geoffrey Chaucer’s “Parliament of Foules”, written in 1382. There are no well-known written anecdotes or poetry of romantic love, associated with Saint Valentine’s Day before this at all. This poem was in honor of the first engagement anniversary of King Richard II of England to Anne of Bohemia, they were both fourteen years old. Later with the advent of courtly love in the fifteenth century, the importance of St. Valentine’s Day grew, making writing and receiving love poems on this day a norm. In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Ophelia refers to it, reflecting its growing popularity.

Digging in the past,there are mainly three folklore about Valentine's day... first one is about "Roman Saint Valentine and Emperor Claudius(II)"..second is about.."Valentine of Terni" and third one is about ... "Valentinius of Alexandria"...

Roman Saint Valentine and Emperor Claudius(II):

3rd century, when the Emperor Claudius II reigned, a time when falling in love seemed like a terrible sin. Marriage was made illegal for young soldiers, and love became a crime. Their only hope was Saint Valentine, a priest who would marry them in secret. As a punishment, he was imprisoned by the Emperor, tortured and eventually put to death for encouraging the path of love.Some records show that Saint Valentine turned to Christianity while he was in jail, which was punishable by death then. He helped many Christians in prison and even showed other prisoners the Christian view of love and forgiveness.Some lore suggests that he fell in love with the jailors daughter and sent her a letter in secret, signed as, “from your Valentine.” This note could be the first Valentine’s Day greetings send to one’s beloved. This entire aspect of defiance for love connects the history of Saint Valentine to bravery or “valor”.

Valentine of Terni:

Valentine of Terni spread the message of true love, it is said that he had the holiness to perform miracles, like healing the old and infirm. Of course, these were times when Christians were persecuted and he was beheaded for his faith.

Valentinius of Alexandria:

This legend is one of the most influential in the history of St. Valentine’s; he is Valentinius of Alexandria, a Gnostic bishop. He preached the sanctity and importance of marriage, which was different from the growing asceticism of Christian thought.Legend says that Valentine of Terni and Valentine of Alexandria or both buried along the Via Flaminia outside Rome. In the middle ages, there have been churches dedicated to Saint Valentinus. Several written “Acta” or chronicles of the church have been found about the Valentinus of Terni and Saint Valentinus, speaking of their life and miracles.

Thanks to TEEBOB.