Almost everything that people write about Valentine’s Day on Facebook has some real history and some discrepancies. Many people don’t even know that there are not one but two Saint Valentines that gave rise to today’s name.
People don’t know that Valentine’s Day was celebrated in Roman times before the advent of Christianity.
When I say Valentine’s Day, I get sweet kisses and laughs. Chocolate laugh It’s only a flower ride. His true history is much deeper than this.
No historian knows the exact origin of Valentine’s Day. However, most historians agree that the Valentine’s Day tradition began with the ancient Roman festival of Lupercalia.
It is said that this festival may have been celebrated by the ancient tribes of Italy before the Roman era. This festival was held for three days from February 13th to 15th every year during Roman times. At this ceremony, after sacrificing a male goat and a male dog, the Luperci monks (these monks are called Luperci, which means “brothers of wolves”) anoint themselves with the blood of goats and dogs.
After this, after washing themselves clean of the blood with wool soaked in milk, the partygoers get drunk on food and alcohol. If they are drunk, they peel off the skins of the Tiristans who have just been killed and offer them to Yas, and they make whips.
Later, the drunken Luparkel monks wandered around Rome naked and shirtless and started whipping people they saw. If you are beaten with this whip, it is easy to have children. If you’re pregnant, you’re free. Because they believed that childbirth was easy, the young ladies of Rome tried to be beaten faster than him.
That’s not all. During this festival, there is still a tradition of pairing up interested young men and women by voting against each other. Young men cast lots for the name of a virgin girl and have fun during the festival with the young woman they choose. This festival was a big one in Roman times.
At the end of the Roman period, the ancient Roman religion faded and the Christian religion flourished. But the Roman public continued to celebrate this Lupacarlia festival with great joy. The Roman Catholic Church does not like this.
Therefore, in the 5th century AD, the first Roman Catholic Pope Gilasius (Pope Gilasius I) designated February 14 as a Christian religious day. The main purpose is to forget the old ideas about today. And today was named Valentine’s Day in honor of two Christian heroes, Valentine of Rome and Valentine of Terni.
Both of these Valentines were executed by Claudius Gothicus II, the second Roman Emperor, on February 14th in the 3rd century AD for practicing Christianity. The years when they rarely get killed are different.
After setting this day as a Christian religious day, the celebration of this Lupa Kaliya festival was banned. But this ancient tradition did not disappear completely. The Normans (ancient French people) celebrated this day as Gallatin Day. Gallatin means “love” in Norman. If today is a day for the Norman men to be happy, it is not wrong.
It was only in the 13th and 14th centuries that this day was celebrated as a day related to romantic love. By this time, the traditional association of today’s origins with “goodness” or “raga” had been forgotten among the medieval European public.
Geoffrey Chauncey wrote the first Valentine’s Day poem in history. This poem was composed for the engagement of King Richard II and Anne of Bohemia.
Another thing is that when the original Valentine’s Day, February 14, changed from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar in 1582 AD, it became February 23. However, the date was not changed, so they continued to celebrate it on February 14th, which was originally set. The strange thing is that this February 23 (February 14 in the original Julian calendar) is the day when birds first mate in Europe. That’s why Geoffrey Chaucer said, “Today is Valentine’s Day, so all the birds are out looking for their mates.”
When the 20th century arrived, Valentine’s Day, which was used to convince people of this poetic love, started to become a big box office for businessmen.