VALENTINE’S DAY. This Tuesday evening is the feast of lovers! To shine with your lover, you can always tell him the origin of Valentine’s Day and its history.
[Mis à jour le 14 février 2023 à 19h00] A millennial tradition returning each year to the date of February 14, the feast of Saint Valentine first existed in the form of Lupercalia, pagan rites taking place at the end of the year (late February for the Romans) and intended to purify themselves. These festivities have changed since they have gone from pagan to Christian and the celebration of the surrounding nature has been replaced by flowers, restaurants and presents from lovers… From Valentine’s Day, we know the message , gifts, meals… But what about its history?
But who was this Valentine’s Day of Terni that we celebrate every February 14? We have to go back several centuries, to the 3rd century of our era, to discover the highly romanticized journey of this man, of whom it is still difficult to know whether he was a priest or a monk. In the early days of Christianity, in an ancient Rome that persecuted Christians, Valentin de Terni was known to marry believers. Unions that did not please Emperor Claudius II the Gothic, who preferred that men turn to his wars rather than women and building a home. According to the legend, it is the sovereign himself who will order the arrest of Valentin.
According to legend, Valentin will befriend Julia, the daughter of his jailer or a magistrate in charge of his supervision depending on the version. Blind from birth, she will fall in love with the prisoner, who told her about the beauty of the world while she brought him food. In contact with Valentin, Julia will finally find the use of her eyes one evening when a light springs from the cell. By this miracle and by his words, Valentin would have succeeded in converting the young Roman to Christianity, as well as his whole family. Angered by the publicity of these events, Claude II will order the execution of Valentin. As a martyr, he will be beaten and beheaded on the Flaminia way, on February 14, 269.
AND ALSO: Send a Valentine’s Day card to your loved one!
The tradition of Valentine’s Day did not begin with the myth of Valentin de Terni, built from scratch by the papacy after his death. It is indeed a legacy of Ancient Rome, but finds its origins in another event: the Lupercalia. Organized every February 15, the Lupercalia then celebrate Faunus Lupercus, god of fertility, shepherds and flocks. Rite of purification, organized at the end of the Roman year (which begins on March 1), this pagan festival takes place in three stages. First, the priests sacrifice a goat in the cave of Lupercal (on the side of Palatine Hill), where, according to legend, the wolf suckled the founders of Rome Romulus and Remus. They then smear young people from noble families with the blood of sacrifice in a ceremony that symbolizes the purification of the shepherds.
The “luperci race” follows, during which priests and young people, covered in the skins of sacrificed animals, run through the streets of the city and whip passers-by with thongs cut from the skin of the same animal. Women, in particular, stand in their way, hoping for a happy pregnancy and painless childbirth. Finally, the celebrations end with a great banquet, during which the young men draw lots for their companion for the evening. A practice that sometimes leads to the formation of lasting couples and leads, why not, to marriage.
A Christian event
Valentine’s Day would then have been instituted by the Church only to counter pagan festivals. The hypothesis, supported by many historians, is not attested by any written source of the time. The only certain fact: at the end of the 5th century, the Lupercalia were one of the last pagan rites still observed in a predominantly Christian Rome. Pope Gelasius I then sent a “letter against the Lupercalia” to Senator Andromaque, who showed a certain attachment to this traditional festival. In this letter, he criticizes the immoral behavior that takes place during this celebration, mocks the superstitions of Christians who honor demons to ward off bad luck, and points out that these celebrations did not prevent epidemics twenty years earlier. However, contrary to popular belief, the pope did not ban this pagan festival: he contented himself with showing the contradiction between the Christian faith and the celebration of Lupercalia. Gelasius chose in 496 to commemorate, on February 14, Saint Valentine, who became the patron saint of lovers. And will give rise to a potentially romantic party.
Cupid, the god of love
In Roman mythology, Cupid is the equivalent of the Greek god of love Eros. Amorous desire personified, Cupid (from the Latin cupiddesire) is often represented in the form of a child, armed with a bow and a quiver filled with arrows, the faithful companion of his mother Venus, goddess of love and beauty.
He is also known to be the hero of the legend of Psyche. According to this myth, Psyche is a princess so beautiful that the inhabitants of the kingdom abandon the cult of Venus in favor of her. Furious, the goddess decides to punish the young girl and orders Cupid to inspire her with a passion for the ugliest being he can find. But the young god falls in love with the princess and cannot accept what his mother asks of him. After having sent an oracle to the king, who asks him to abandon his daughter on an isolated rock, he has Psyche kidnapped by the breeze of Zephyr which carries her to a sumptuous palace, located in an unknown valley. He joins her every night, during her sleep, under a human appearance, and makes her promise never to try to know his appearance. Unfortunately, on the injunction of her sisters, Psyche gives in to curiosity and lights up her husband’s face while he is asleep. A drop of oil falling on his body wakes him up: he gets up and flies away. Inconsolable, Psyche goes in search of her husband and must overcome a series of trials imposed by Venus. At their end, Cupid, who regrets his wife, obtains from Jupiter permission to take Psyche to Mount Olympus, where she becomes immortal and gives birth to a girl named “Volupté”.
The Dark Side of Valentine’s Day
In the book “Saint-Valentin, mon amour!”, published by Les Liens qui liberantes, the historian and sociologist Jean-Claude Kaufmann tells us about Valentine’s Day in ancient times. And proves that the “myth” of Saint Valentine, as a Christian character, has been widely misused for political and religious purposes (read below). Something to surprise those who abhor this party often considered too cutesy or overly commercial.
According to Jean-Claude Kaufmann, there are several saints named Valentin who were originally protectors of the “vineyard against phylloxera”, “cows”, “disease” and even “the cultivation of onions “…But not love. And there is worse. Jean-Claude Kaufmann takes inventory traditions that are at least dubious or even totally abject that have, over the centuries, resulted in the birth of Valentine’s Day as we know it today. The author of “Valentine’s Day, My Love!” mentions in particular the cult of the bear, which was celebrated in the Middle Ages, far from the romantic Valentine that we have been presented with since. Considered the animal closest to man and with unbridled sexuality, it was the subject of many theories such as that of Bishop Guillaume d’Auvergne, who wrote in 1231 that “when a woman mates with a bear, she gives birth to a human baby”.
Further still in the horror, the author recalls that during the ancient festivals of the Lupercalia, at the origin of Valentine’s Day, it was a question of “purifying” women by whipping their buttocks or stomachs to make sure they were fertile. In the 15th century, in a society where sexuality was restrained and marriage firmly regulated, another tradition proceeded by collective rapes, accepted by society. “Young men went to the victim’s house during the night, made a row under her windows to call her, calling her a ‘ribaud’. Then, as she was silent, her door was broken down”, writes Jean-Claude Kaufmann, who indicates that the phenomenon was so massive that half of the men had already participated in this type of rape and that the victims, deflowered before marriage, had no choice but prostitution. Several excerpts from the book were compiled by France Info.
Where to spend a long Valentine’s weekend in France?
This year, Valentine’s Day falls on a moderately practical date for those who aspire to a romantic weekend in exotic destinations. But nothing prevents you from going on a long weekend. We cannot recommend a romantic getaway to our villages in France, from Castelnau-de-Montmiral in Occitanie to Veules-les-Roses in Normandy via Riquewihr in Alsace:
To live a beautiful romance for two over a long weekend, follow the trail of poets, writers and novelists like ApollinaireVictor Hugo, Aragon, Ronsard, George Sand, Simone de Beauvoir or even sovereigns like Henri II or Napoleon Bonaparte… Dig into our ideas for outings below, meeting places for the most famous lovers in history:
What romantic movies to watch on Valentine’s Day?
La La Land, On the road to Madison, 4 Weddings & 1 Funeral, Love at first sight in Notting Hill, Love Actually, The secret of Brokeback Mountain, When Harry met Sally, Ghost, Call Me By Your Name… Notice to couples film lovers, for this February 14, we have concocted a selection of the most beautiful love stories immortalized in cinema, from the great classics to romantic comedies and romances that will make you shed tears:
What romantic music for Valentine’s Day?
On the occasion of your Valentine’s Day dinner, we invite you to make this moment even more perfect thanks to our playlist of the best love songs among the most significant of the last 70 years, in French, in English, taken from mostly movies. Still Loving You of Scorpios, Do not leave me by Jacques Brel or even Hallelujah by Jeff Buckley, we let you discover them in music, with the lyrics and the story behind: