So who was St Valentine
Time for a history lesson - to all you who think St Valentines day is all about being nice and romantic - think again…
The 14th February is the day earmarked by the Church to celebrate the feast of St Valentine - there are several stories claiming to be the origin of “Valentines Day” - the most common being that of a Roman who was killed by beheading in the 3rd century for refusing to give up his beleifs. The other 2 versions are the Valentine was a Bishop who was beheaded during the reign of Claudius II, or was a priest who helped persecuted Christians durign the reign of Claudius II, and was also beheaded - so whichever story you think is the original St Valentine, he met a nasty end.
In 1969 the Catholic church dropped St Valentines Feast from it’s calendar, following some confusion over it’s origins, however this little detail was lost on the entire greetings card and chocolate heart industry.
And of course, this is the day to remember the gangland execution of 7 men from Bugs Moran’s gang by Al Capone in a Chicago warehouse in 1929 (now recorded in history as the “St Valentines Day Massacre”.)
Let’s not forget the basic message here, Valentines day is a feast of rememberance of various people who met violent and brutal ends. How it got associated with teddy-bears holding hearts, or saying “I love you” with a gift of Martian Soil is anyone’s guess (although in the case of the acre of Mars, maybe your bit will hold the secret of what happened to Beagle 2)
This article is of course, devoted to the cause of “Singles Awareness Day” - I’m not “Anti-couple” or “anti-valentines”, I’m just single. So if you’re spending the day/evening with someone you love and care for, good for you, and I hope you enjoy yourselves - but please be careful not to make too big a deal of it with your single friends. There’s a very good chance that they don’t want to be reminded that the 14th is the day where the world seems to be targeted at couples exclusively, and they won’t get to be a part of that this year.
See the following sites for more history of St Valentines Day - and I’m sorry I had to link to some pages with such sickening colour schemes, but some people think pink hearts will go with anything…
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[...] So, today is the day for all us “singles” to be thankful that we don’t have to be drawn into this over-commercial celebration of death (see last years post for the bloody history of St Valentine) - and instead can spend the day being totally self-indulgent and doing what we want to do. [...]
[...] If you’re wanting more “proper content” in my writing, I’ve got a nice rant lined up for Valentines Day - keep checking back for when that one appears - plus I’m planing to keep the “V Minus” series of posts running as and when I get more interesting emails advertising stuff to buy my non-existant girlfriend for a holiday which celebrates a certain person meeting a very violent end. (see last years Valentines post) [...]
[...] Anyway, just so you know, this countdown is going somewhere - when we get to “V Minus One” there will be a post (which I’ve already partially written) regarding the 14th february - and last years post is tame by comparison! [...]