Valentine's Day
14/02/19 04:21
The history of Valentine’s Day is a bit confused. The earliest list of Roman martyrs, compiled in 354, does not include the name Valentinus. It does appear in a list that was compiled between 460 and 544 from a collection of different lists of saints. The feast day of February 14 was established in 496 by Pope Gelasius I, who commented that the acts of St. Valentine were known only to God and that nothing was known about his life. Modern scholars speak of three different people declared to be saints with the name of Valentine. One was a priest, another the bishop of Interamna, in Italy, and the third was said to have been martyred on the same day with a number of companions in Africa. Some claim that the the first two were really the same person, with reports of different events in different phases of his life. So we really don’t have a complete historical record of who Valentine was.
The common story given about Saint Valentine is that he was a 3rd-century Roman who ministered to Romans during the time of the persecution of Christians. The story is that the Romans attempted to curtain the rapidly-growing Christian movement by declaring marriages between Christians to be illegal. Valentine continued to perform weddings in defiance of the law and was eventually martyred for his actions. There isn’t much evidence, but the story persists.
One can’t help but wonder how someone who was a dedicated Christian of the fourth century might react to the contemporary holiday of Valentine’s Day as celebrated in the United States. It is the major marketing holiday between Christmas and Easter. The stores are filled with candy, flowers and stuffed animals. I’m not sure how Teddy Bears got associated with Valentine’s Day, but there certainly are a lot of them lined up for sale in the grocery store. I wouldn’t think that a grocery store would be the first place to shop for a gift for one’s loved ones, but the stores where I shop the most often both have entire aisles of red and pink items for sale. Valentine’s Day is a big day for florists.
Here is Rapid City, Valentine’s Day is the biggest annual fund raising event for the Mount Rushmore Chapter of the Barbershop Harmony Society, also known as the Shrine of Democracy Chorus. The chorus of all men deploys in quartets to deliver singing valentines. Their web site declares “There’s no more romantic way to show your special someone your love.” For $50 per song a quartet will deliver a card, a rose, a box of chocolates and sing a romantic song to the person you designate. The accept cash, checks, credit cards and PayPal. The quartets will be out from 9 am to 9 pm today and it may be too late to get your preferred time. They usually are pretty booked up well in advance of the day.
I’ve never sent nor received a singing valentine. Somehow it just doesn’t seem like the best way to tell someone of my love. I prefer to do it myself, face to face when possible. With a daughter in Japan and a son and grandchildren in Washington, I’ve learned to say “I love you” over Skype and FaceTime, but it is best when delivered with a hug.
We haven’t gotten too much into chocolates, flowers or even cards at our house. My wife’s birthday, which comes the week before Valentine’s Day and our grandson’s birthday, which is the following day, often have some items that are decorated in red or pink. The best ice cream cakes of the season are already done up in valentine’s colors.
A few years ago, I was going through some medical tests. One of the tests was an echocardiogram. The procedure is simple for the patient. You lay on your back and on your side as a technician slides a device across your chest and an image appears on the screen. The technician then takes measurements of the images on the screen and saves them to be read by a trained cardiologist. What is interesting about being the patient is that you can see a picture of your own heart in real time. You can watch it contract and expand, sending blood throughout your system. It is just slightly creepy at first, then fascinating, to think that the image is what I look like on the inside. The image doesn’t look much like the heart symbol that is in common use today.
According to the history channel, there are several theories about the symbol that we draw and send as an emoji on our phones. One theory is that the shape is similar to the plant silphium, a species of giant fennel that once grew on the North African coastline near the Greek colony of Cyrene. The ancient Greeks and Romans used the plant as a food flavoring and as a cough syrup. It’s most famous use, however was as birth control. Ancient writers and poets hailed the plant for its contraceptive powers. It became so popular that it was cultivated to extinction. The trade in the plant made the ancient city of Cyrene rich and the heart shape of its seed pod was stamped onto the money of Cyrene. One legend is that the Roman Emperor Nero was presented with the last surviving stalk of the plant.
The History Channel article, however, discounts the plant theory of the origins of the symbol in favor of early artists’ renderings of the shape of the heart. Aristotle described the heart as having three chambers with a small dent in the middle. He was close, but not quite right. The human heart has four chambers.
People have long associated the heart with emotions and the shape, whether inspired by fennel or early medical drawings, has been co-opted as the symbol of romance and love. It appears on many Valentine’s cards and we can send the shapes in text messages as emojis.
I have no plans for a spending spree to celebrate the day. As I said before, I prefer to tell people that I love them face to face. The great thing about giving a hug is that you get a hug in the process. Happy Valentine’s Day!
The common story given about Saint Valentine is that he was a 3rd-century Roman who ministered to Romans during the time of the persecution of Christians. The story is that the Romans attempted to curtain the rapidly-growing Christian movement by declaring marriages between Christians to be illegal. Valentine continued to perform weddings in defiance of the law and was eventually martyred for his actions. There isn’t much evidence, but the story persists.
One can’t help but wonder how someone who was a dedicated Christian of the fourth century might react to the contemporary holiday of Valentine’s Day as celebrated in the United States. It is the major marketing holiday between Christmas and Easter. The stores are filled with candy, flowers and stuffed animals. I’m not sure how Teddy Bears got associated with Valentine’s Day, but there certainly are a lot of them lined up for sale in the grocery store. I wouldn’t think that a grocery store would be the first place to shop for a gift for one’s loved ones, but the stores where I shop the most often both have entire aisles of red and pink items for sale. Valentine’s Day is a big day for florists.
Here is Rapid City, Valentine’s Day is the biggest annual fund raising event for the Mount Rushmore Chapter of the Barbershop Harmony Society, also known as the Shrine of Democracy Chorus. The chorus of all men deploys in quartets to deliver singing valentines. Their web site declares “There’s no more romantic way to show your special someone your love.” For $50 per song a quartet will deliver a card, a rose, a box of chocolates and sing a romantic song to the person you designate. The accept cash, checks, credit cards and PayPal. The quartets will be out from 9 am to 9 pm today and it may be too late to get your preferred time. They usually are pretty booked up well in advance of the day.
I’ve never sent nor received a singing valentine. Somehow it just doesn’t seem like the best way to tell someone of my love. I prefer to do it myself, face to face when possible. With a daughter in Japan and a son and grandchildren in Washington, I’ve learned to say “I love you” over Skype and FaceTime, but it is best when delivered with a hug.
We haven’t gotten too much into chocolates, flowers or even cards at our house. My wife’s birthday, which comes the week before Valentine’s Day and our grandson’s birthday, which is the following day, often have some items that are decorated in red or pink. The best ice cream cakes of the season are already done up in valentine’s colors.
A few years ago, I was going through some medical tests. One of the tests was an echocardiogram. The procedure is simple for the patient. You lay on your back and on your side as a technician slides a device across your chest and an image appears on the screen. The technician then takes measurements of the images on the screen and saves them to be read by a trained cardiologist. What is interesting about being the patient is that you can see a picture of your own heart in real time. You can watch it contract and expand, sending blood throughout your system. It is just slightly creepy at first, then fascinating, to think that the image is what I look like on the inside. The image doesn’t look much like the heart symbol that is in common use today.
According to the history channel, there are several theories about the symbol that we draw and send as an emoji on our phones. One theory is that the shape is similar to the plant silphium, a species of giant fennel that once grew on the North African coastline near the Greek colony of Cyrene. The ancient Greeks and Romans used the plant as a food flavoring and as a cough syrup. It’s most famous use, however was as birth control. Ancient writers and poets hailed the plant for its contraceptive powers. It became so popular that it was cultivated to extinction. The trade in the plant made the ancient city of Cyrene rich and the heart shape of its seed pod was stamped onto the money of Cyrene. One legend is that the Roman Emperor Nero was presented with the last surviving stalk of the plant.
The History Channel article, however, discounts the plant theory of the origins of the symbol in favor of early artists’ renderings of the shape of the heart. Aristotle described the heart as having three chambers with a small dent in the middle. He was close, but not quite right. The human heart has four chambers.
People have long associated the heart with emotions and the shape, whether inspired by fennel or early medical drawings, has been co-opted as the symbol of romance and love. It appears on many Valentine’s cards and we can send the shapes in text messages as emojis.
I have no plans for a spending spree to celebrate the day. As I said before, I prefer to tell people that I love them face to face. The great thing about giving a hug is that you get a hug in the process. Happy Valentine’s Day!