Festival of St. Valentine

When visiting the magnificent country of France, you will quickly discover that the French love life. They love celebrating life, which is seen with the many festivals held throughout the year. Known as the country of love, many celebrations focus on just that, love. One such event is called the Festival of St. Valentine. During the month of February, people stop to remember all that France has been through and where the country stands today, as one of the most romantic places in the world.

The fascinating aspect of the Festival of St. Valentine is that its observance is actually based on another celebration called Lupercalia, a Roman event of eroticism that was established to honor Juno Februata, the goddess of “feverish” love. Taking the aspect of love from Lupercalia, the Festival of St. Valentine was formed, as a way of celebrating love between man and woman, along with sexual game playing, something often seen in France along with many other countries.

As you can imagine, the early Christians of France did not approve of such behavior or celebration of such behavior. Trying hard to stop the Lupercalia festival, the Christian clergy urged participants of the event to use the names of saints instead. After the celebration, the clergy also encouraged people for the following year to adopt and practice the ideals of the particular saint they had chosen. With overwhelming rebel, the clergy’s version of Lupercalia reached a quick death.

Determined to put an end to such open celebration of eroticism, the Christians continued their battle, this time trying to squelch the sexual nature of Lupercalia, asking that the festival change its focus from flesh to romance. Rather than have participants choose a number of saints, the clergymen chose just one, the pagan goddess June, or St. Valentine, known as that time as “Valentinus”. With St. Valentine being martyred on February 14, they tried to set the celebration up for the following day.

Next, the clergymen worked to make St. Valentine appealing to lovers so the story was somewhat embellished by the church. Although today no records exist to document this, legend tells us that St. Valentine had ignored a decree sent down by the Emperor Caludius II, forbading all marriages and betrothals. However, ignoring the orders, Valentinus was caught marrying several couples, which meant a trip to prison and a sentence of death.

While in prison, it is said the said cured one of jailer’s daughters of blindness and with that, she fell head over heels in love with Valentinus. Unfortunately, her love was not enough to save his life but on the night prior to his execution, St. Valentine was able to sneak a note to the girl, which was signed, “From your Valentine”. Unfortunately, even with all the work of the church to change the existing Lupercalia, St. Valentine’s Day still mirrored the sinful event in that men and women, whether married or not, would draw lots to select a valentine.

After the couples had been paired off, gifts were exchanged and in some cases, a small token of love. This custom of drawing went into the 18th century after which time no more gifts were exchanged. Instead, it became the responsibility of the man to buy the woman something special. This change ended random drawing of names because so many men did not want to buy a gift for a woman whom they did not choose.

Today, the custom is that men and women can choose their own valentine and a gift is not mandatory. However, the essence of St. Valentine’s Day continues, being a day and celebration of love when two people share the special bond of love. With cards being introduced in 1415 when the Duke of Orleans was unable to be with his wife due to imprisonment. Therefore, he wrote her a heartfelt and romantic letter.

Currently, the stores around the world are flooded with valentine’s cards of all shapes, sizes, and for all ages. After all, love is universal and knows no boundaries. All throughout France, you will find St. Valentine’s to be a time of major celebration where couples walk hand in hand, stealing secret glances, and passionate kisses.


Last Updated: 10/19/2006 3:14:00 PM

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