Valentine's Day (All Lovers' Day)
Description:
Boxes with elite chocolate, red roses with meter stalks, touching bears and bunnies, velvet pillows with confessions and wishes, chains and pendants are sold out. On this day, many offer their passion and heart, and all that is attached to these gifts by default.
Azerbaijanis joined the February corking not so long ago – just a few years ago – and now, too, enthusiastically “valentinates.” Not everyone knows where this holiday came from. Most have heard that he is associated with a Catholic saint named Valentine, who lived in two hundred of some year BC, seemingly in ancient Rome, and suffered greatly from one of the emperors in the name of love.
As for the origins of Valentine’s Day, not everything is clear. But the official version is this:
Eight centuries before this holiday was established, the ancient Romans celebrated the February festival of Lupercalia in honor of Faun Luperca, the fertilizing deity. The highlight of the festive program was a kind of lottery: young men drew lots - papers with the names of young virgins. These girls became their friends until the next lottery.
Much later, the Christian Pope Gelasius, wishing to get rid of pagan vestiges, replaced women's names with the names of saints and somewhat changed the rules of the game. Of course, not everyone liked it. The wise father, having judged that canceling the festival (especially the youth festival!) was a difficult and ungrateful affair, decided to modify it a little, transforming it into a Christian holiday. (Those interested in history, such as Halloween, know that the Catholic Church has done so often, and not without success.) So we had to find a replacement for Faun Luperk. The most suitable candidate for the pope seemed the holy martyr Valentine, who had the most direct relation to love. He was beheaded in ancient Rome in 270 AD by order of Emperor Claudius. The fact is that Claudius, who believed that family life was the lot of mature husbands and not young men, issued a law prohibiting these latter to marry. Like, let them go to war first, or what kind of family man soldier. He will sit at the hearth next to his wife and children - then you will not drive out. However, a priest named Valentine went against the will of the emperor, continuing to secretly marry those who wish to marry. Upon learning of this, Claudius ordered to capture the disobedient and put him in prison.
According to one of the romantic legends, Valentine was the author of the first love card. He fell in love with the jailer’s daughter (and she fell in love with him), and on the eve of his execution he sent her a letter in which he wrote “From Your Valentine”. This signature is used in valentines to this day.
Perhaps this story is a figment of romantic imagination. However, whatever the truth, the image of Valentine is invariably associated with heroism, sympathy for lovers, fortitude and romance. That is why the holiday in his honor has become so popular.