By Rodrigo Díaz Guerrero
Valentine’s Day or in Spanish The Day of Love and Friendship, recently passed. In much of the world, lovers and enthusiasts of affection made it their own with heart-shaped balloons, boxes of chocolates, romantic dinners, and bouquets of flowers. A long etcetera includes all the clichés that the market has established to accompany the cards that, since the beginning of the 19th century, have been marketed with great success.
Before stationery companies recognized the opportunity, people—in Paris, in London, then in New York—made their own love cards from fragile paper mixed with silk and satin, fringed with filigree lace, and, of course, cheesy poetry. But the origin of the so-called Day of Love goes back many centuries. In ancient Rome, the Lupercal festivities on February 15 celebrated Luperca, the mythological representation of the god Faunus, the wolf that nursed Romulus and Remus, the founding twins of Rome. In those celebrations, the most illustrious adolescents were chosen to act as the Lupercos—a special congregation of priests. The Lupercos met on February 14 in a grotto later called Ruminal. There, according to tradition, the empire was founded. A goat was sacrificed as an initial part of the ceremony. Its blood was used to mark the foreheads of the participants, and straps were made from its skin. These latter were used to whip the hands and backs of the naked women who participated in the ceremony because they believed this made them fertile. The Lupercalia, therefore, was considered a fertility ritual and an act of purification.
It was also called Februation, and remained popular in Christianity until Pope Gelasio I prohibited the secular celebration and replaced it with Valentine’s Day in the year 498. It was named after St Valentine, about whom there are many stories. The most common one tells of a doctor who became a priest and married soldiers, although it was prohibited by Emperor Claudius II. Upon learning of the practice, the emperor ordered him beheaded. It is said that while in prison he fell in love with the daughter of the prison judge, who was blind. He prayed her sight might be restored. It is said that when he was transferred to the public square for his execution, he gave the girl a folded piece of paper, and when she opened it she could see for the first time. The farewell note read, «your Valentine.” In gratitude, she planted a rose bush on his grave that, according to tradition, bloomed every February 14.
