Happy hearts, flowers, hugs, festival of Lupercus Eve, birds selecting mates and St. Valentines Day.

*Whew* what a mouthful. You knew I couldn't just say 'Happy Valentines Day' now, didn't you? I was the kid asking 'WHY?!'. Not 'Why?', but 'WHY?!'. AND I am the mythology folklore fanatic. Ever wonder how this romantic 'holiday' got started? For the record, the Catholic church struck St. Valentines day from their calendar in order to pare down the number of saints days of purely legendary origin. (Which I find pretty funny, considering the Pope Gelasius I first declared the feast of St. Valentine to be February 14 somewhere around the year 498.) Legend has it, that he did this to counter the practice of young men and women pairing off as lovers by drawing names out of an urn held on Lupercalia (the festival of Lupercus,the Ancient Roman god of Fertility). Think about it. On the plus side, this saved us all from the agony of 'Oh Lupercus! PLEASE don't let HIM (or HER) pick me!'. On the down side, we now have to go through the ritual of DATING. I consider it a wash. In Ancient Rome, the festival of Lupercus was held on February 15. The Ancient Romans, being the partying kind, would sacrifice goats to the god, drink wine, then run through the streets of Rome holding pieces of the sacrificed goat skin above their heads, touching anyone they met. Mind you, these were Ancient Roman Priests doing this. To top it off, the young Roman women especially would seek out the priests hoping to be touched. They believed that being touched by the priests would render them extremely fruitful and their childbirths would be easy ones. So how did this 'holiday' turn into one connected with romantic love? It was first recorded during the 14th century by none other than Geoffrey Chaucer, who wrote in the Parlement of Foules that For this was sent on Seynt Valentyne's day Whan every foul cometh ther to choose his mate It was common during this era for lovers to send each other notes on this day and to call each other "Valentines". Nowadays, we can thank the Diamond Inudstry for using this as an opportunity to promote fine jewelry sales. Yes everyone, in the 1980s they decided that they needed a marketing boost. What better way than to suggest to men, that in order to show the object of your affection that you love them, one must shower them with fine jewelry. After all 'She's worth it!' and 'Diamonds are a girls best friend!'. My earliest memory of Valentines Day was to decorate a shoe box in pinks, red and white, make 'valentines' out of paper doilys, construction paper and paste and put one in each of my classmates shoebox creations. All I knew was this was a day to tell my friends and loved ones how special they were. Has anyone else noticed that kids shows nowadays are not actually saying 'Valentines' day? It is 'Happy Hearts and Hugs Day!'. Yay for being PC and Censorship. It is creeping into everything. Quick, seal me up in a vacuum tube. I might learn something about history or other cultures. What are some of your favorite memories from this 'holiday'? To read more about St.Valentine's Day click below (That's where I got my info): St.Valentine's Day :From Wikipedia