Do you know why we have Valentine's day??
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Valentine's day has been named after St. Valentine who defied the orders of the Roman emperor Claudius II and secretly married the young Roman men in his kingdom. Claudius II firmly believed that married men made poor soldiers and he had passed the order that none of the young men in his kingdom can marry. When he found out, Claudius had Valentine imprisoned, and he tried to convert him to Paganism, but Valentine instead tried to Christianize him and when he failed Claudius sentenced him to death. The days during which Valentine was imprisoned, he fell in love with the blind daughter of his jailer and his great faith is said to have restored her eyesight. Before he was taken for his death, Valentine wrote a letter to her, and signed it as 'from your Valentine' All these happened in the 270 AD. Valentine was beheaded on 14th. Feb, the eve of the Roman festival of Lupercalia.
It is believed that the festival originated from the Roman festival of Lupercalia. Lupercus was the God who was worshipped to keep the wolves away. A festival held in honor of Lupercus was celebrated on February 15th. The festival was celebrated as a spring festival. The calendar was different at that time, with February falling in early springtime. One of the popular customs of this day was the custom of name drawing, the name of young girls were written on slips of paper and placed in a jar. Each young men drew a slip pf paper and the girl whose name was written on that slip of paper was to be his sweetheart for that whole year. When Rome became christianized, Pope Gelasius changed the festival such that the name of young girls were changed with names of names of Saints. Now both men and women were allowed to draw the names, and they had to follow the ways of the Saints whose name they drew. And instead of Lupercus being the patron of this day, St. Valentine was named the patron Saint of this day. But even though the Roman festival was banned by the Church fathers this festival continued to be one where young Roman men gifted handwritten messages, containing the name of St. Valentine to the women they loved. This is how Valentine's day evolved.
Happy Valentine's
Day!!
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