Lupercalia - The less than lovey dovey side of the St Valentines Feast

Feast Days are Ancient calendar days that held great significance in the past.  One such one is the Feast of St Valentine. 

In today's society it is nothing more than an opportunity to sell more rubbish to people at a very high price and justify it all by love and lovers.

The truth of this time is a little different.  Before the Roman religion became Christianized and possibly even pre Roman times it was the Pagan Festival of Lupercalia on this day.  This festival is carried out from the 13th to the 15th of February.  The priests that oversaw this feast were known as the Luperci (priests).

The observances for this day were Goat and Dog slaughtering and the Luperci took part in hitting women in order to increase their fertility.

Images @ Eminpee Fotography

It was once known as the "Feast of St Valentinus"

A rose from Bricee

Now, its been snapped up by commercialism and by and large today it is seen by the masses as a day of love or a day that represents love or a weirdo commercial  version of love.

In 1969 the revision of the Roman Catholic Calendar of Saints, the feast day of Saint Valentine on February 14 was removed from the General Roman Calendar and relegated to particular (local or even national) calendars for the following reason: "Though the memorial of Saint Valentine is ancient, it is left to particular calendars, since, apart from his name, nothing is known of Saint Valentine except that he was buried on the Via Flaminia on February 14.

So today is that feast of ' St Valentines Day'.  I didn't realize this at first.   I was given a rose last night at 2.30am and no one said a single thing about Valentines Day. 

I noticed the date this morning, 14th February - Argh - now I understand why Brice handed me the beautiful dark pink Rose, another classic symbol of love. 

I love you Bricee Brennan you are my Valentine every day. 

The Feast of  St Valentines Day:

In the (so named) Dictionary of Christianity, it is written that Saint Valentine was "a priest of Rome who was imprisoned for succoring persecuted Christians."

Contemporary records of Saint Valentine were most probably destroyed during this Diocletianic Persecution in the early 4th century. 

In the 5th or 6th century, a work called 'Passio Marii et Marthae' published a story of martyrdom for Saint Valentine of Rome. The same events are also found in Bede's Martyrology, which was compiled in the 8th century.  

It states that Saint Valentine was persecuted as a Christian and interrogated by Roman Emperor Claudius II in person.

Claudius was impressed by Valentine and had a discussion with him, attempting to get him to convert to Roman paganism in order to save his life.  Valentine refused and tried to convert Claudius to Christianity instead.

 Because of this, he was executed...   Nothing has seemingly changed.  Read more here  Wikipedia

Images @ Eminpee Fotography