It's a pre-Christian Holiday with such a dramatic history you can't help but throb and weep!
Here's a glimpse from one of my favorite books, Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things:
The Catholic Church’s attempt to paper over a popular pagan fertility rite with the clubbing death and decapitation of one of its own martyrs is the origin of this lovers’ holiday.
As early as the 4th century B.C., Romans engaged in an annual young man’s rite of passage to the god Lupercus.
The names of teenage women were placed in a box and drawn at random by adolescent men; thus, a man was assigned a woman companion, for their mutual erotic entertainment and pleasure, for the duration of a year, after which another lottery was staged.
Determined to put an end to this 800-year-old practice, the early church fathers sought a "lovers’’ saint to replace the deity Lupercus. They found a likely candidate in Valentine, a bishop who had been martyred 200+ years earlier.
In Rome in A.D. 270, Valentine had enraged the mad emperor Claudius II, who had issued an edict forbidding marriage. Claudius felt that married men made poor soldiers, because they were loath to leave their families for battle.
Valentine invited young lovers to come to him in secret, where he joined them in the sacrament of matrimony. Claudius learned of this "friend of lovers," and had the bishop brought to the palace.
The emperor attempted to convert him to the Roman gods. Valentine refused to renounce Christianity and imprudently attempted to convert the emperor. On February 24, 270, Valentine was clubbed, stoned, then beheaded.
While Valentine was in prison awaiting execution, he fell in love with the blind daughter of the jailer. Through his unswerving faith, he miraculously restored her sight. He signed a farewell message to her "From Your Valentine," a phrase that would live long after its author died.
Now is that romantic or what!
The traditional gifts of Valentines tell you everything you need to know. Surprises that smell good, taste good, silky and sensual, declarations of affection, flirtations, and most of all, generosity of spirit.
I also think of Valentines as a family and children's holiday. There is nothing more fun that throwing a Valentine party for a bunch of scissor-and-glue-happy kids. They don't hold back!
The "swan/consumer" role model of romance. It's not a day for bitterness and comparisons. It's a hot pink 24 hours to embrace sensuality, let your freak flag fly, love for love's sake.
I miss my mother's valentines, now that she's passed. She was the first one to ever "send" me a Valentine card and her exuberance was contagious...Never missed a year.
Erotic: Psilocybin and champagne with two dear friends in a hotel suite high up in downtown San Francisco. We were all making love— and then I just stopped for moment, sat up to look at them. They were "in the throes—" and they were so beautiful, I started crying as if I was having a virgin viewing of Michaelangelo's Pietà. It was the opposite of jealousy; my heart was fit to burst it felt so big. I've vicariously felt one lover's climax before, but never two at the same time.
Mommy/Baby: My daughter's mushy valentines to me, every year. She writes a poem, draws a picture of me, and I melt.
Parties: My friend Scottie throws a massive crafty Valentine Party each year, turning his whole house and garage into a Warholian Love Factory. It goes on all night; there are people welding outside and glue-gunning, water-coloring in the kitchen, glitter-spewing, collaging with old National Geographic's and National Enquirer's. You bring your own scissors and stuff to add to the 20-year supply closet. Love is All Around, baby!
Two Ideas:
My lover game, Dare Cards, will give you so many fun ideas they will make your head spin. —Maybe other parts too.
Print out the lyrics to one of your favorite songs. Come up to your sweetheart and just sing your heart out! It does NOT matter what your pipes sound like; just go for it... Guaranteed to make both of you fall madly in love all over again.
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