Because it was not always linked to love, red roses and the explosion of hearts.
Today, February 14, it is curious the contrast between the origins of San ValentÃn, as a celebration full of orgies covered in bloody rituals turned into a sweet celebration full of gestures about love and friendship.
Although historians are not very clear about the origin of this celebration, everything indicates that ancient Rome could be a good starting point to understand the origins of Valentine’s Day. Between the 3rd and the 15th of February, the Romans celebrated a party in which the men sacrificed a goat and a dog, and after removing their skin, they made whips with which they whipped the women to “raise their pain and thus your fertility levels. ” “Roman romantics were drunk and naked during this party,” says Noel Lenski, of the University of Colorado.
As The Telegraph explains, women lined ranks waiting to be whipped on their naked bodies. Later a raffle was held in which each man drew the name of a woman, and the couples were destined to have sexual relations while the festivities lasted.
According to historians, even the name of our current celebration, Valentine’s Day, could have its origin in ancient Rome. It is said that Emperor Claudius II, who reigned in the third century AD executed two men, both called Valentine, a February 14. And the Catholic Church decided to pay tribute to these martyrs with the celebration of Valentine’s Day.
Over the years the celebration was softened and then, by the hand of Skakespeare and Chaucer, began to romanticize and become popular in the United Kingdom and the rest of Europe. It was even in this medieval era that paper cards with loving messages began. Eventually the tradition was exported to the New World and with the appearance of the industrial revolution, the production of love cards became widespread. But it was not until 1913 that Hallmark began flooding the market annually with this type of detail on February 14.
Today is a date that is becoming increasingly important, since the mobilization of money is gigantic …
Whatever it is, Happy Valentine’s Day!
