Thu, Feb 11th 2010, 12:03
Valentine’s Day is a celebration of love, a chance for old lovers to affirm their love for each other and for potential new lovers to connect with their admirers. But when was the start of Valentine’s Day?
Valentine's Day has been celebrated since antiquity. The pagans had a cleansing ritual on February 15th and later the ancient Romans held a festival at the Ides of February. Tradition was that during this festival, called the Feast of Lupercus, young men would be paired off with young woman to be their companion for the year.
This changed during the reign of Emperor Claudius who was more interested in war and was afraid that the young men would be too caught up with romance and refuse to serve in his army. So, he outlawed marriage. Young lovers determined to be together secretly approached Bishop Valentine who agreed to conduct marriage ceremonies in secret. When Claudius found out he was furious and had the bishop killed.
When the Roman Empire became Christian, the feast of Lupercus was ended. But the feast held mid-February was an ancient tradition and so the day became a festival to honour Valentine and his deeds for young lovers.
Today the church no longer includes St Valentine's Day on its calendar of festivals but the celebration of St Valentine's Day is still popular with lovers all over the world. Through the mists of time the most important celebration of love and relationships remains St Valentine's Day.
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