photo courtesy of Wix
It’s that time of year when the chocolate is flowing and wedding proposals are high. I remember having Valentine’s Day parties in school where everyone had to give a card to all of their classmates. My grandmother would get each of us kids a small chocolate-filled heart. And it seems that roses were sold on every street corner. But what is Valentine’s Day?
Historically Valentine’s Day was attributed to a person known as “St. Valentine”. But which one? The church recognizes several people as “The Valentine” for Valentine’s Day. One legend is that a priest during the time of Emperor Claudius II was crucified for marrying people without permission. Apparently good ol’ Claud decided that single men made better soldiers, so he outlawed that “holy wedlock” type of thing. I’m sure that went over well. But that Valentine was sainted. I wonder what miracles were attributed to him for this…
The other “Valentine” was St. Valentine of Terni, a bishop who was also killed by the same Claudius (this guy had anger management problems). There is no word on what his crime(s) were, but I’m sure they were equally as heinous as daring to marry people.
The third story I found was another Valentine who may have met his end by these same Romans for daring to help other Christians escape their torture and beatings. This legend says that this particular Valentine sent the first “Valentine” greeting – to the girl who visited him during his confinement. He also died. Maybe by good ol’ Claud – maybe not. Frankly, all those Roman Emperors had a bit of an anger management problem.
Okay, well, that didn’t tell us where Valentine’s Day actually came to us from. However, we do know, sort of, why it is celebrated when it is. See, the Catholic Church, to help with converting those nasty old pagans, had a habit of just borrowing the old pagan holidays for new “Christian” holidays. Lupercalia, a fertility festival dedicated to the Roman god of Agriculture (Faunus, for those interested) was celebrated on the ides of February (February 15).
And, considering that old song “First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes baby in a baby carriage,” fertility is connected to love. Kind-of.
Lupercalia was a total party. The priests (Luperci) would all meet up at the cave where, supposedly, the infants Romulus and Remus were cared for by a she-wolf. The priests would sacrifice a goat, for fertility, and a dog, for purification.
Considering dogs are the cousins of wolves, you’d think that they would sacrifice something else, but whatever.
The goat’s hide would be cut into strips and dipped into the sacrificial blood, and then the priests would wander the streets of Rome, slapping both women and crop fields with that nasty goat hide. Not a cool thing to report in a vegan blog post, but history is history. And there are a lot weirder things that ancient Romans used to do in those days.
The women loved getting whacked by the goat hides as it was believed that it would make them more fertile. Then, to continue the weirdness, the single women would all place their names on some type of parchment, and place in an urn, and the city’s bachelors would pick a name to pair with. I guess a precursor to Match.com?
Lupercalia continued for a while longer until fully outlawed by the Catholic Church, but the idea of a day devoted to love continued.
Geoffrey Chaucer was the first one, we think, to refer to a “St. Valentine’s Day” in his poem “Parliament of Foules” (written in 1375). And by the early 15th century, exchanging Valentine’s greetings was common.
Today, it is believed that more than 100 million Valentine’s greetings of some kind are exchanged every Valentine’s Day. Americans alone spend more than $2 billion every Valentine’s Day. Part of that is the almost 60 million pounds of candy. That doesn’t even count the rest of the world. Or that there are 2 Valentine’s Days in Asia – February 14 is Valentine’s Day and March 14 is White Day.
Luckily, you don’t have to go back to eating animal-based products (or sacrificing them) to celebrate Valentine’s Day. Some of my favorite candies have come out with Vegan versions.
Here is a short list of my favorites:
Reeces Peanut Butter Cups
Hershey Plant-Based Chocolate Bars
Cocomels Caramels
Lindt/Lindora Oat Milk Truffles
Vegan Kit Kat
And here is a handy list of both intentionally and accidentally vegan candy brands:
For more information about Valentine’s Day, look at these articles:
And to discover more about White Day, which is very interesting, I’ve attached this article:
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