VALENTINE’S Day – the epitome of a ‘Hallmark holiday’, right?
Actually, this celebration of love has some history to it.
Valentine’s Day, on February 14, falls conveniently on a Sunday this year.
Like most of the old-world traditions that Anglo-Christian culture Down Under hangs onto, we in Australia are completely divorced from the seasonal connotations of these occasions. For instance, Easter, the birth of new life, renewal, bunny rabbits and Jesus – that’s all spring.
Likewise, Valentine’s Day was considered a marker of early spring, however connotations of romantic love have well eclipsed that now.
You’d hope that the story behind Saint Valentine is going to be a good one – something like an early-era Romeo and Juliet drama – but it really isn’t. In fact, it’s difficult to pin down the actual origins of the saint. It doesn’t help that numerous early Christian martyrs in Roman times were named Valentine.
And what have the Romans ever done for us? Well, the February 14 Feast of Saint Valentine was established by the Pope in Rome in AD 496, a full 227 years after one particular Valentine died, and since around about the 16th Century, the day has been a celebration of romantic love.
The most iconic Valentine’s Day symbol of course is Cupid, the winged, naked child who flies around insensibly with a loaded weapon. So many questions.
So, for couples, Valentine’s Day is a gimme. It’s made for people like you. For singles, unfortunately being alone on Valentine’s Day is no different to any other day of your life.
