St. Valentine\'s day

See also: St. Valentine's day (homonymy)

The day of the St. Valentine's day , the February 14th, is considered in many countries as the festival of in love one. The couples benefit from it to exchange soft words and gifts as evidence of love as of the red roses which are the emblem of the Passion.

In the beginning celebrates Catholic church, the day of the St. Valentine's day would not have been associated with the romantic love before the top Moyen-âge. The festival is now more closely associated with the mutual exchange with “love letters” or valentins illustrated symbols such as a heart or a winged Cupid.

The sending of tickets at the 19th century the exchange of greetings cards succeeded. It is estimated that approximately a billion these charts are dispatched each year at the time of the Saint Valentin, quantifies beaten only to the number of charts exchanged at the time of the festivals of Christmas. It is also estimated that 85% of these charts are bought by women.

History of the day of the Saint Valentin

Festivals of the fertility of February

The association of the middle of February with the love and the fertility dates from antiquity. In the calendar of the ancient Athens, the period of mid-January at mid-February was the month of Gamélion, devoted to the crowned marriage of Zeus and Héra.

In the ancient Rome, the day of February 15th was named the Lupercales or festival of Lupercus, the god of the fertility, which one represents with half naked and vêtu of goatskins. The priests of Lupercus sacrificed goats to the god and, after having drunk wine, they ran in the streets of Rome and touched the passers by while holding with the pieces of goatskin with the hand. The young women approached readily, because to be touched thus was supposed to make fertile and facilitate the childbirth. This pagan solemnity honoured Junon, goddess Roman of the women and the marriage, like Pan, the god of nature.

At least three different saints are named Valentine, all three martyrs. Their festival was fixed on February 14th by decree of the pope Gelase Ier, in the neighborhoods of 498. It is on this date that they are mentioned in the first Martyrologe S:

Valentine of Rome, a priest who suffered the martyr in Rome in second half of the 3rd century and who was buried on the Via Flaminia.
Valentine de Terni, a bishop of Interamma (the modern Terni), which also suffered martyrdom in second half of the 3rd century and which was also buried on Via Flaminia.
a martyr in North Africa of which one knows almost nothing.

The bringing together between the Saint Valentin and the courtly love is mentioned in no old story and is regarded by historians as a legend. There exists a legend according to which the festival of the St. Valentine's day was created to thwart the practice of the lupercales by the young people in love who drew their names on a ballot box. But this practice is quoted in no written source of the time.

. At the conclusion of this giant hide-and-seek, the formed couples were brought to marry in the year. This made it possible to develop demography and to stimulate the expansion of the villages.
This practice left free course to many cheatings on behalf of semi-official couples as of the men who aimed at most beautiful young girl in particular and in particular the “of the village”, very courted.

The medieval time

The first mention of the day of the St. Valentine's day with a connotation in love goes back to the 14th century in England and France, where it was believed that on February 14th was the day when the birds migrated. This belief is mentioned in the writings of Geoffrey Chaucer in the 14th century. It was current during this period that in love ones exchange tickets and that they are called each one their Valentine. One of these tickets of the 14th century would be with the British Library. It is probable that many legends on the St. Valentine's day were invented for this period. Among these legends, one finds those:

the day before the martyrdom of Saint Valentin, it slipped “Valentine” with the girl of the geôlier who would have read “on behalf of your Valentine”.
For one period of prohibition of marriage of the Roman soldiers by the emperor Claude II, Saint Valentin arranged the marriages secretly. In the majority of the versions of this legend, on February 14th is the date related to its martyrdom.

At the beginning of the 15th century, the work of Charles of Orleans comprises several poems dedicated to the St. Valentine's day.

Relics

There exist several saints, therefore several sites:

with Dublin: to the 19th century, the relics of saint Valentine de Terni were bequeathed by the pope Gregoire XVI to the church of the Carmelite nuns of the street Whitefriar to Dublin, which then became a place of pilgrimage for on February 14th. In 1969, with the aim of purify the catholic calendar of all the legendary saints, the Church removed the day of the St. Valentine's day of its official calendar.
with Roquemaure: since the October 25th 1868, the church of Roquemaure in the Gard shelters the relics of a Saint Valentin. In 1868 they were bought with Rome by a rich person wine owner of the country which used them in the aim of protection the vineyards of the Phylloxera, appeared here two years before.

The St. Valentine's day in the nonWestern countries

In China and with Taiwan, since the Years 1980, the St. Valentine's day knows an important popularity, in particular in the young people, who generates various marketing activities. Separately the St. Valentine's day, there exists a traditional festival, the IQ Qiao Jie , for in love ones coming from a old Légende, whose date is the 7 of the seventh month of the lunar calendar.

With the Japan, this practice has one time an obligation for much of women, in particular the employees, who were to offer to chocolates to all their male colleagues, sometimes at a very high cost (these chocolates were called besides " Giri Choco" , i.e. " chocolates of obligation"). March 14th is called white day , it is a commercial phenomenon created in Japan and taken again by South Korea, Taiwan and HongKong. On this date the men are supposed to offer a linen (or another present) white to those which offered chocolates to them. The young girl can require on this occasion one present whose value is three times superior with the value of the chocolates offered one month earlier.

The St. Valentine's day was also popularized in India, with the Pakistan and until in Saudi Arabia, causing the hostility of certain groups opposed to this “Western” influence.

In Brazil, one does not speak about St-Valentine but about " dia back namorados" (day of in love) not celebrated on February 14th but on June 12th.

See too

Love
Raymond Peynet
Stamps of St. Valentine's day
Valentine

References

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