Valentine’s Day What does it really mean and how did it get started?

Valentine’s Day

What does it really mean and how did it get started? 

Each year on February 14^th, many people exchange
cards, candy, gifts or flowers with their special “valentine.” The day
of romance we call Valentine’s Day is named for a Christian martyr and
dates back to the 5^th century, but has origins in the Roman holiday Lupercalia.









Saint Valentine's Day







References are located at United Church of God website http://www.ucg.org and also

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Saint Valentine's Day, also known as Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine is a holiday observed on February 14 each year. It is celebrated in many countries around the world, although it is not a holiday in most of them.

The ancient Roman festival of Lupercalia, an annual three-day ritual
believed to ward off evil spirits and increase fertility, was held on
February 13 to 15.

Lupercalia (also known as Februatio, which is where we get the name
for our month of February) was popular among many of the new converts to
the quick-rising Catholic Church, and as Celebrations:

American Holidays notes, "Everywhere that [mainstream]
Christians came into power they immediately adapted the holidays and
customs of the people to their own creed” (Robert J. Myers and the
editors of Hallmark Cards, 1972, pp. 50-51).

Such was their course of action with this festival of Lupercalia.
While Pope Gelasius officially condemned the pagan Roman festival and
banned its observance at the end of the fifth century, many of its
accompanying practices quickly appeared in a newly established holiday
added by him to the official church list of feast days in A.D. 496—St.
Valentine's Day.

Soon, people were no longer looking to obtain fertility by being
beaten with strips of animal skin called februa. Instead, they turned
their focus to St. Valentine, the patron

saint of "engaged couples and anyone wishing to marry" (Celebrations,
pp. 48-49), whose actual identity is even murkier than what connection
he bore to romance.

Flowers, candy, red hearts and romance. That's what Valentine's
day is all about, right? Well, maybe not.

The origin of this holiday for the expression of love
really isn't romantic at all -- at least not in the traditional sense. Father
Frank O'Gara of Whitefriars Street Church in Dublin, Ireland, tells the real story
of the man behind the holiday -- St. Valentine.


 www.CBN.Com also weighes in 

"He was a Roman Priest at
a time when there was an emperor called Claudias who persecuted the church at
that particular time," Father O'Gara explains. " He also had an edict that prohibited
the marriage of young people. This was based on the hypothesis that unmarried
soldiers fought better than married soldiers because married soldiers might be
afraid of what might happen to them or their wives or families if they died."

"I
think we must bear in mind that it was a very permissive society in which Valentine
lived," says Father O'Gara. "Polygamy would have been much more popular than just
one woman and one man living together. And yet some of them seemed to be attracted
to Christian faith. But obviously the church thought that marriage was very sacred
between one man and one woman for their life and that it was to be encouraged.
And so it immediately presented the problem to the Christian church of what to
do about this."

"The idea of encouraging them to marry within the Christian
church was what Valentine was about. And he secretly married them because of the
edict."

Valentine was eventually caught, imprisoned and tortured for performing
marriage ceremonies against command of Emperor Claudius the second. There are
legends surrounding Valentine's actions while in prison.

"One of the men
who was to judge him in line with the Roman law at the time was a man called Asterius,
whose daughter was blind. He was supposed to have prayed with and healed the young
girl with such astonishing effect that Asterius himself became Christian as a
result."

In the year 269 AD, Valentine was sentenced to a three part execution
of a beating, stoning, and finally decapitation all because of his stand for Christian
marriage. The story goes that the last words he wrote were in a note to Asterius'
daughter. He inspired today's romantic missives by signing it, "from your Valentine."

"What Valentine means to me as a priest," explains Father O'Gara, "is that
there comes a time where you have to lay your life upon the line for what you
believe. And with the power of the Holy Spirit we can do that -- even to the point
of death."

So I ask you Sweet or Not. we have adapted this holiday and made it into a sweet festive day for lovers and loved one. A lot of times we may learn that what we thought was the real reason behind a holiday or social holidays may not mean exactly what we believe it to be.



Persoanlly I love Sweet Hearts and and really look forward to spending quality time with my loved ones and although I share my love and passion for them daily February 14th is jus another day that I can really splurge on LOVE



This year Valentines Day falls on Saturday, February 14 2015







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 Romance is in the air with special gifts for him & her this #ValentinesDay! #AvonRep avon4.me/1yhq8bK





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