Valentine's Day & LOVE. What's The Fuss?

It’s difficult to escape any official holiday in our present, consumer based world. Between Godiva, Lindt and Russel Stover red and pink heart shaped chocolate candy boxes and flowers at the entrance of every shop, it is hard to pass through Valentine’s Day on the calendar without expressing love on February fourteenth for someone we hold dear.

On February fourteenth, beloveds world over and lovers of all sorts, exchanged expensive cards, received beautiful bouquets of flowers, heart shaped boxes of assorted chocolates, and other, more opulent gifts, and shared extravagant and fine meals, all in the name of St.Valentine. Consumers and merchants exchanged a ton of cash and products. So, the question in my mind is, “who is this saint in whose name we feasted, indulged and spent our well earned money on romance and love? Who is this patron of love?”

The first official Valentine’s Day was celebrated in the year 496 AD. It originated as a liturgical feast to celebrate the decapitation of a few Christian martyrs. Hmmm. Beheading to betrothing is quite a far reach. How did we link the chasm between these two antipodal activities?

If you’ll indulge me my ‘historian’ inclinations, I’d like to give you a little chronicled background on Saint Valentine.

A Brief Synopsis on ‘The Day Of Love’...

Manuscript archives have revealed that there were several saints who died on Feb. 14. Two of them were executed during the reign of Roman Emperor Claudius Gothicus, also known as Claudius the Cruel, in 269-270 A.D., at a time when persecution of Christians was common.

One particular account tells of a Roman holy priest, Valentine, in the third century. During that time, Emperor Claudius had banned all marriages. Yes, banned the sacrament of matrimony. He thought because men were married, they were distracted by their wives and families and therefore, were not able to serve the emperor as good soldiers. The priest, Valentine, felt this was wrong. In response to his conviction, he broke the emperor’s rules and continued to arrange and bless marriages in secret. When Claudius found out, the priest was thrown into jail and was sentenced to death.

The story is told that there, he fell in love with the jailer's daughter. The day of his execution, he sent her a love letter signed "from your Valentine". On February 14, in or about the year 270 AD, he was beaten to death with clubs and his head was cut off. The church canonized him as Saint after his death, for his acts of heroic service and martyred end.

The love connotation of Feb. 14 probably appeared more than a thousand years after the Saint’s death, when Geoffrey Chaucer, author of “The Canterbury Tales” decreed the February feast of St. Valentinus to the mating of birds. He wrote in his “Parlement of Foules”: “For this was on seynt Volantynys day. Whan euery bryd comyth there to chese his make.”

In the centuries following the Romans, the early Christians, and the great Chaucer and Shakespeare, modern industrialization ushered in new technology and a new way to capitalize on commercialism by mass producing illustrated cards adorned with poetry to be used to pen verses of affection between lovers. And then came along Cadbury, Hershey’s, and other chocolate manufacturers marketing sweets for sweethearts on Valentine’s Day. Thus, the bridge between ‘beheading’ and ‘betrothing’ was gapped.

My thoughts? Expressing love cannot be based on commercialism, a marked date on a calendar, or even on any saint who died for the sake of love. Though all these are good and more than viable reasons to celebrate Valentine’s Day, LOVE must be a daily, minute by minute, second by second expression of affection for those dear to us.

Happy Valentine’s Day to you all.

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