Bogwitch

Before the much-maligned Constantine stopped people from slaying Christians every five minutes, there was a pagan festivals known as the feast of Juno Februata, celebrating the Roman Gods Faunus and Juno. Among the festivities was a ritual in which the names of young women where written down and put in jars; young men would then draw a name at random from the jar, and the woman whose name he drew became his partner for anything from one night to up to a year. Some of the pairings made on the night of Juno Februata later became full marriages. There was another feast about the same time of year, which was particular to Rome. Two goats and a dog were sacrificed to celebrate Lupercalia, the she-wolf that nursed Romulus and Remus, Rome’s founders. The priests of Lupercali, dressed in goatskins, ran around the city lashing people with leather thongs, and women would wait with their hands outstretched to receive a lash which was supposed to bring fertility and safety in childbirth.

The Christianization of these feasts had to do with the ordering of love and sexual expression. There were at least three Valentines, and we don’t know all that much about any of them. Whether the day is attributed to one or all of them, who knows – but the most popular story centres around a priest who performed illegal marriages. The story goes that the Roman Emperor Claudius II imposed a ban on marriages in order to boost his army. Only single men had to enter the army, and too many men were dodging the draft by getting married. Valentinus, though, in an effort to protect the sacramentality of Christian marriage, performed secret marriages, and when he got caught he was sentenced to death. While he awaited execution, he was showered with notes from young couples extolling the virtues of love over war. (Looks like John Lennon didn’t invent the slogan “Make love not war” after all.) These notes, if they ever existed at all, were supposedly the first Valentines. Poor old Valentinus was executed in February 14th, 269, a bloody end for the saint of love.

—

My Bloody Valentine – Maggi Dawn (via ayjay)

History!  Is better than blind consumerism.

(via ayjay)