Flowers,
candy, red hearts and romance. That's what Valentine's day is all about, right?
Well, maybe not.
The origin of
this holiday for the expression of love really isn't romantic at all—at least
not in the traditional sense. Father Frank O'Gara of Whitefriars Street Church
in Dublin, Ireland, tells the real story of the man behind the holiday—St.
Valentine.
"He
was a Roman Priest at a time when there was an emperor called Claudias who
persecuted the church at that particular time," Father O'Gara explains.
" He also had an edict that prohibited the marriage of young people. This
was based on the hypothesis that unmarried soldiers fought better than married
soldiers because married soldiers might be afraid of what might happen to them
or their wives or families if they died."
In the year
269 AD, Valentine was sentenced to a three part execution of a beating,
stoning, and finally decapitation all because of his stand for Christian
marriage. The story goes that the last words he wrote were in a note to
Asterius' daughter. He inspired today's romantic missives by signing it,
"from your Valentine."
It's
thought that as part of the celebrations, boys drew names of girls from a box.
They'd be boyfriend and girlfriend during the festival and sometimes they'd get
married.
Later on,
the church wanted to turn this festival into a Christian celebration and
decided to use it to remember St Valentine too.
Gradually,
St Valentine's name started to be used by people to express their feelings to
those they loved.
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