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2. Valentine's day
Oh! My lovely couples and my lovely singles it's
time for your favourite celebration...Valentine's
Day!!

3. Celebration
Each year on February 14th ,many people exchange
cards,candy,gifts or flowers with their special "valentine". The day
of romance we call Valentine’s day is named after a Christian
martyr and dates back to the 5th century,but has its origins in the
Roman holiday Lupercalia.
Like Halloween , Valentine's day is a celebratiom embraced by
commerce and used heavily by marketing. Cupid, love hearts,red
roses, lovebirds and the colour red is used to symbolize romantic
love on stuffed toys, cards, chocolates and other gifts. It's
common with couples to have a romantic meal together on this day
and restaurants are often fully booked.
More than 25 million cards are sent for Valentine's day each year.
Some people also send Valentine's day cards to friends and familly
to show their love and appreciation.

4. More information
• Every February 14, across the United States and in
other places around the world, candy, flowers and gifts
are exchanged between loved ones, all in the name of
St. Valentine. But who is this mysterious saint, and
where did these traditions come from? Find out about
the history of this centuries-old holiday, from ancient
Roman rituals to the customs of Victorian England.

5. • The history of Valentine’s Day–and the story of its patron saint–is
shrouded in mystery. We do know that February has long been
celebrated as a month of romance, and that St. Valentine’s Day, as
we know it today, contains vestiges of both Christian and ancient
Roman tradition. But who was Saint Valentine, and how did he become
associated with this ancient rite?
• The Catholic Church recognizes at least three different saints named
Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom were martyred. One legend
contends that Valentine was a priest who served during the third
century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men
made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he outlawed
marriage for young men. Valentine, realizing the injustice of the
decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young
lovers in secret. When Valentine’s actions were discovered, Claudius
ordered that he be put to death.

6. ORIGINS OF VALENTINE’S DAY: A PAGAN
FESTIVAL IN FEBRUARY
• While some believe that Valentine’s Day is celebrated in the
middle of February to commemorate the anniversary of
Valentine’s death or burial–which probably occurred around
A.D. 270–others claim that the Christian church may have
decided to place St. Valentine’s feast day in the middle of
February in an effort to “Christianize” the pagan celebration
of Lupercalia. Celebrated at the ides of February, or
February 15, Lupercalia was a fertility festival dedicated to
Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, as well as to the Roman
founders Romulus and Remus.

7. • To begin the festival, members of the Luperci, an order of
Roman priests, would gather at a sacred cave where the infants
Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, were believed to have
been cared for by a she-wolf or lupa. The priests would sacrifice
a goat, for fertility, and a dog, for purification. They would
then strip the goat’s hide into strips, dip them into the
sacrificial blood and take to the streets, gently slapping both
women and crop fields with the goat hide. Far from being
fearful, Roman women welcomed the touch of the hides because
it was believed to make them more fertile in the coming year.
Later in the day, according to legend, all the young women in the
city would place their names in a big urn. The city’s bachelors
would each choose a name and become paired for the year with
his chosen woman. These matches often ended in marriage.

8. History time
• Historians aren’t 100% sure about the origins of Valentine’s
Day, but many believe it all started as the pre-Roman empire
ritual known as Lupercalia. Every February 13 - 15, goats and
dogs were sacrificed at an altar by the Luperci (or “brothers of
the wolf”) as an offering. After that, folks were anointed in
the blood of the animals, wiped clean with some wool soaked in
milk , and feasted until they were full and drunk. Then came
the best part: the Luperci took the skins of the sacrificial
animals and ran around naked, smacking people with them.
Here’s how Plutarch describes the festivities:

9. • “Many of the noble youths and of the magistrates run up and down
through the city naked, for sport and laughter striking those they
meet with shaggy thongs. And many women of rank also purposely
get in their way, and like children at school present their hands to
be struck, believing that the pregnant will thus be helped in
delivery, and the barren to pregnancy.”
• Noel Lenski, a historian at the University of Colorado at Boulder,
also points out that there was a kind of “matchmaking lottery”
during the festival. Men drew women’s names randomly from a jar
and then they would be, uh, “coupled” during the duration of the
festival. Now that is a holiday!!!

10. • Around the start of the industrial revolution in the
U.S., Valentine’s Day went from being a small-time,
historical day of romance to full-blown money tree.
The new age of machinery ushered in mass-produced,
factory-made cards one could easily purchase and pass
off to those they cared for on special occasions. In
1913, Hallmark Cards offered pre-made
valentines, and in 1916 started mass producing them.
The day of romance was born anew as a commercial
holiday. Since then, the day is not only about buying
cheesy cards to pass around your third grade class,
but it’s also about buying flowers, candy, jewellerry,
and trying unsuccessfully to get reservations at
halfway-decent restaurants. Love is still in the air,
but there’s no doubt the holiday is more about “stuff”
nowadays than romance.

11. And don't forget,my
lovebirds,you will all break up
someday...
Fotini Armata
Katerina Valavani
Aggelos Makrinos
Katerina Andreadi