Valentine's Day Wednesday 14 February

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 14, Issue 673, 11 February 1997, Page 11

Valentine's Day Wednesday 14 February

Although she may be hoppmg ott her mountain bike with Jier mobile phone in hand to walk into a florists to buy her man a bunch of red roses, Valentine's Day is a festival older than Christian times. The date of 14 February has been an orgy of romance since the days of the Roman Empire and maybe even earlier. Historians believe it was first a pagan festival, possibly Lupercalia, that was absorbed into the Christian calendar. Lupercalia was dedicated to Pan, the god of fertility, and Juno, the guardian of women and goddess of married life. It was celebrated as winter drew to a close and the earliest spring flowers came into bloom, carrying with them thoughts nf renewal and procreation. Tradition has it that birds choose their mates on St tine's Day — a belief which has some foundation since species, including the thrush and partridge, select thei mates in mid-February (we're talking Northern Hemi sphere birds, as that is where the festival began). Humans too, it seems, succumb to the urge to pair u spring approaches. While customs may have changed, a universal love o ensured that St Valentine's Day retains most of its original potency. Letter boxes will brim with Valentine cards illustrated with flowers and birds, symbols of fertility and romance. Saies of red roses and chocolates will soar. At one time, the sending of a Valentine card or gift meant a proposal of marriage. And while sending a card may be little more than a flirtation these days, St Valentine's Day remains the favourite day for marriage proposals. So strong is the romantic element of St Valentine's Day that it is no longer clear which saint the Christians intended to commemorate on 14

February. There were at least two saints of that name and several martyrs because Valentine was a common

name in ancient Rome. Historians say he was probably a priest who was beheaded on the Flaminian Way on 14 February 269 AD after he had succeeded in converting his prison guard to Christianity while in jail for helping Christian martyrs. - Although the Christians succeeded in changing the name of the festival, and probably toning down some its more bawdy practices, some customs continued almost he present day. One of the ceremoies of Lupercalia saw imes of young women m a box and allotted to men. This was pracope right up to the 20th English diarist Samuel Pepys tells how he was allotted Valentines each 14 February, drawing his own wife in 1 666 and recording, characteristically, that this would cost him five pounds — equivalent about $750 now. Early English accounts of the lovers' festival include one by the 14th century poet Geoffrey Chaucer, who wrote that on "Seynt Valentyes Day ... ye come for te chese your mates".

I radition once held that the tirst bachelor an unmarried woman encountered on Valentine's Day would become her husband. Consequently , young women would contrive to see the man of their choice on that morning. In earlier centuries, St Valentine's Day had been more frivolous and married people could also draw V alentines. In parts of England, gifts would be left on the Valentine' s doorstep by an admirer who knocked and then ran.