A not-so-sweet beginning…
– 180 Million -
That’s the number of cards the U.S. Census Bureau reports are exchanged annually on Valentine’s Day, making it the second-most popular greeting-card-giving occasion, second only to Christmas.
A 2010 report from the National Retail Federation, titled Valentine’s Day Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey, states that the holiday will elicit over $14 Billion in consumer spending this year, $448 million of this amount being generated through candy sales alone. Greeting card sales for this year are estimated at $784.3 million.
The total spend works out to approximately $103 on average per person for traditional Valentine’s Day purchases. It’s a major spending holiday that has powerful repercussions for the economy. Some say that the holiday is good because it generates important revenue, especially, in a down economy. Shouldn’t those who sing the praises of this holiday consider its origins before blindly taking part? What do we know concerning the origins of the day?
The U.S. Census Bureau offers the following statement in regard to February 14th, Valentine’s Day:
One legend has it that Valentine’s Day originated to commemorate the anniversary of the death of St. Valentine, a Roman clergyman who was executed on Feb. 14, about 270 A.D., for secretly marrying couples in defiance of the emperor. According to another, the holiday began as a Roman fertility festival.
So, what is the truth regarding what has become this major, revenue generating, U.S. holiday? Where did this holiday originate? Was Saint Valentine even involved in the morphing of what we now know to be St. Valentine’s Day? Or, was there a more ancient and sinister past that can be traced to a well-known Biblical villain?
Let’s examine the origins of the St. Valentine’s Day. We’ll begin by simply looking at several sources in regard to the holiday’s namesake, an early Christian martyr named Saint Valentine.
The Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition states the following:
Although the name of St. Valentine is …commonly connected with St Valentine’s Eve and Day …the association of the lovers’ festival with St Valentine seems to be purely accidental.
A more recent version of Britannica states the following:
St. Valentine’s Day as a lovers’ festival, the choice of a valentine and the modern development of sending valentine cards has no relation to the saint or to any incident in his life.
So, if the holiday did not originate with St. Valentine’s life, then where did it come from?
The ancient Roman pagans celebrated a festival on February 15 and the eve of the 14th. It was an idolatrous and sensual festival in honor of one called “Lupercus”, the Roman deified hero “hunter of wolves.” The Romans called the festival “Lupercalia.”
The festival included animal sacrifice, and in its most ancient form, human sacrifice. It began with the killing of goats and a dog. The Luperci, those officiating at the altar, took the sacrificial knife and cleaned it with wool dipped in milk. The scriptures specifically speak against “boiling a kid [a young goat] in its mother’s milk” (Ex 23:19; Ex 34:26; Dt 14:21). This saying was God’s warning to Israel against these types of idolatrous pagan practices.
The Luperci, then, would cut strips from the skins of the animals. They would partially clothe children who would run through town hitting townspeople with the strips of skin, especially women who believed they would have fertility and ease in childbirth if they were hit.
The strips of skin, called thongs, were called februa, this rite was called Februatio, and the day itself was called dies februatus which comes from the Latin februare meaning to purify. This is where the name “February”, the month, comes from.
Another part of this celebration was a lottery. The names of young women were drawn by young men from a box, and by chance, the couples were then “paired off.” The sensual part of this festival then ensued. This drawing of the names, once accepted into Christianity, became the giving of a Valentine gift.
When Constantine made Christianity an official religion of the Roman Empire in A.D. 313, there was some talk in church circles of discarding this pagan free-for-all, but the Roman citizens wouldn’t let go of the practice. It continued on, except for the more overtly sensual portions of the observance. Pope Gelasius I replaced Lupercalia with St. Valentine’s Day in A.D. 496.
But, does this holiday have even more ancient origins than the Lupercalia?
“Valentine” was an ancient name for “Lupercus,” the mighty hunter, as we’ve seen. Roman parents would often give the name Valentine to their children in honor of the famous man who was first called Valentine in antiquity. That famous man was none other than, Lupercus, the wolf hunter.
Who was Lupercus and why did he also bear the name Valentine among the pagan Romans? According to Smith’s Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, Vol. II, the Romans identified Lupercus with the Greek god Pan. Pan was an Arcadian god of light. As such, he was equivalent to the Phoenician sun-god Baal. Baal was a title of Nimrod, “the mighty hunter.” In Genesis 10:8-9 we read:
Cush begot Nimrod; he began to be a mighty one on the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord; therefore it is said, ‘Like Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord.’
This was something that the people of that day commonly said in regard to Nimrod. They called him “the mighty hunter before the Lord.” The word Valentine comes from the Latin word Valentinus, a proper name derived from the word valens, meaning “to be strong, powerful, mighty.” Can you see the connection with Nimrod? Nimrod was the valentine of the people, he was their strong man!
Now, why is the heart associated with Valentine’s Day?
In the Chaldean tongue, spoken in Babylonia, the word for “heart” was bal spelled B-A-L. The heart – bal – became, because of similarity in sound, a symbol of Nimrod – the Baal, or Lord, of the ancient Babylonians.
The Greeks called him “Pan.” The Phoenicians and Semites called him “B-A-L” or “B-A-A-L.” The original biblical name for “Saint Valentine” was “Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord” — but he was NO SAINT! Even the image of the cupid associated with the day is of a small child holding a bow and arrow – a direct reference to the birth of Nimrod which is associated also with Christmas, as well as the bow and arrow of the “mighty hunter” of Genesis 10.
Why is the holiday celebrated on February 14th?
According to custom, the birth-date of Nimrod was January 6th. His mother, Semaramis, after having given birth to Nimrod, presented herself for purification 40 days later, on February 15. You can see the Biblical instruction in this regard in Leviticus 12:2,4. For a male child there were two portions of time: 7 days and then 33 days for a total of 40 days.
From January 6th to January 31st is 25 days. If you add the remaining 15 days, then you arrive at the total 40 days of purification. This was not only a Biblical statute, but it was also a custom of antiquity, and the legend has it that Semaramis presented herself as “purified” on the 15th of February, after the birth of Nimrod, with the day beginning on the evening of the 14th – the date of the Lupercalia , the date of St. Valentine’s Day.
(See also theSaint Valentine’s Day commentary on Tomorrow’sWorld.org)
