The history of Valentine’s Day is obscure and legends abound, but the roots of the holiday are firmly anchored in the ancient Roman festival of Lupercalia, a fertility celebration commemorated annually on February 15.
Pope Gelasius I tried to remodel the celebration in the year 496 as a Christian feast day, declaring February 14 to be ‘St. Valentine’s Day’.
According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, there were at least three early Christian saints by that name, including a priest in Rome, a bishop in Terni and of a third of whom almost nothing is known except that he died in Africa.
The most interesting part of the story is that all three Valentines were said to have been martyred on February 14.
Most scholars believe that the St. Valentine of the holiday was a priest who attracted the disfavor of Roman emperor Claudius II around 270.
According to one legend, young men were prohibited from marriage so that they would be eligible as soldiers, and Valentine secretly performed marriages and was apprehended by the Romans and put to death.
Another legend has it that Valentine, imprisoned by Claudius, fell in love with the daughter of his jailer and just before he was executed, allegedly sent her a letter signed ‘from your Valentine’.
In 1969, the Catholic Church revised its liturgical calendar, removing the feast days of saints whose historical origins were questionable, and St. Valentine was one of the casualties.
Regardless, most women, and some men, expect to be wooed on St. Valentine’s Day, and cards, chocolates, flowers and dinner are the litmus test of care, concern and love for one’s partner on that day.
Most men grit their teeth at the holiday, looking toward the high cost and inconvenience of doing their duty, but Javier’s Mexican Restaurant, in Marianna and Chipley, Florida, are taking away your pain.
Offering a ‘Sweetheart Special’ Two-for-One Dinner, this Valentine’s Day also happens to fortuitously fall on ‘Taco Tuesday’, and Javier’s suggests taking advantage of this favorably discounted day to save some money and say ‘I Love You’, killing two birds with one stone.
(Javier’s in no way takes responsibility for any less-than-stellar results if you are foolish enough to let your wife KNOW that you are saving money in this process).
Happy Valentine’s Day!
