The Muddled Origins of Valentine's Day
Valentine's Day is a time to celebrate romance and love and send lovey-dovey kissy messages to your partner. But the origins of this festival of candy and cupids are actually a bit dark, bloody — and very muddled.
Though historians have struggled to pinpoint the exact origin of the holiday, one good place to start is ancient Rome.
From Feb 13th to 15th, the Romans celebrated the feast of Lupercalia. Men sacrificed a goat and a dog, then whipped women with the hides of the animals they had just slain. Young women would actually line up for the men to hit them. Not very romantic. The brutal festival included a matchmaking lottery, in which young men drew the names of women from a jar, kind of an ancient Roman dating app.
The Romans may also be responsible for the name of our modern day of love. Emperor Claudius II wanted a strong army, but was having a difficult time finding soldiers. Claudius believed that Roman men were unwilling to join the army because of their strong attachment to their wives and families. So he banned marriage. One priest named Valentine, continued to secretly perform marriages for young lovers. When Valentine's romantic actions were discovered, Claudius arrested him and cut off his head on February 14th. He was martyred and the day became known as St. Valentine's Day.
Later, in the 5th century Pope Gelasius I muddled things even more by combining St. Valentine's Day with Lupercalia to make a single festival. Around the same time in Northern Europe, the Normans celebrated Galatin's Day. Galatin meant "a day to celebrate your love for a woman." That was likely confused with St. Valentine's Day at some point, in part because they sound alike. Galatin – Valentine.
As the years went on, the holiday grew sweeter. Chaucer and Shakespeare romanticized it in their work, and it gained popularity throughout Britain and the rest of Europe and handmade paper cards became the in-thing during the Middle Ages.
Eventually, the industrial revolution ushered in factory-made cards in the 19th century and in the 20th century, big companies began mass producing Valentines cards. February has not been the same since.
▍生词好句
1. lovey-dovey /lʌvɪˈdʌvi, ˈlʌvɪˌdʌvi /: adj. very affectionate or romantic, usually in front of other people
If two people in a romantic relationship are being lovey-dovey, behaving in a lovey-dovey way, or acting very lovey-dovey, they show their love for each other in public by holding hands, touching each other, maybe kissing in public and saying lots of sweet lovely things to each other. They are being "lovey-dovey".
2. Cupid /ˈkjuːpɪd/: In classical mythology, Cupid, is the god of love, attraction and affection, usually shown as a naked baby boy with wings holding a bow and arrow. If Cupid fires the arrow into the heart of two people, they will fall in love.
to play cupid: to try to bring two people together to start a romantic relationship
3. matchmaking /ˈmatʃmeɪkɪŋ/: n. the activity of encouraging people you know to form a relationship or get married, just like playing cupid
subtle matchmaking: matchmaking that is done not in a very obvious way
4. romanticize /rə(ʊ)ˈmantɪsʌɪz/: vi & vt. to think or say that someone or something is more romantic, or more exciting than it really is in reality
If you romanticize (about) sth., you talk about it in a way that makes it seem more romantic or attractive than it really is.
▍Fact Time: 8 Reasons Why You Shouldn't Hate Valentine's Day
1. You hate Valentine's Day because you're single. But it's not just for couples.
Valentine's Day is all about love. You love lots of people even if you don't have a significant other. Tell your friends or relatives you love them and they will say it back (if not, get new friends).
2. 'Why not just show your love all year round?'
Love can be specially highlighted on one specific day.
3. You hate Valentine's Day because it's a commercial and corporate holiday.
Why would you hate something because it's commercial? Everything is commercial nowadays. Our modern life is commercial. We live a modern commercial lifestyle.
4. You hate Valentine's Day gifts.
Flowers, teddy bears and chocolates are such clichéd gifts to show you care about someone. But not every gift needs to be super creative and personalized. Clichéd gifts are clichéd for a reason. And people buy clichéd gifts on every holiday. This is not the reason to hate the holiday.
5. 'It's just another way for couples to show off and make single people feel lonely.'
People don't fall in love and have relationships to make single people feel bad or jealous. If you don't like seeing other people in love on Valentine's Day, stay at home. Don't mourn about their love for each other. They are not going out on Valentine's Day to make you feel bad.
6. 'It's so much trouble to go out on the same night that everyone else is going out!'
The modern world is crowded. It's crowed on Valentine's Day and other holidays. If you hate crowds, stay at home and have a romantic night in, or go for a quiet romantic walk at night, staring at the moon and stars.
7. You're single and you hate being single on Valentine's Day.
Valentine's Day is your chance to take a chance, a perfect day to proclaim your feelings for someone.
8. All this hate is a waste of time and energy, and it does not make you more attractive.
Don't walk around looking miserable, telling everyone how much you hate Valentine's Day. Tell everyone how much you love Valentine's Day and how you wish you had someone special to share it with. This will make you more attractive.