The History of Valentine’s Day
Rachel McCrory, Newspaper Staff
February 9, 2012
Filed under Feature
To many people, Valentine’s Day is an ewwey gooey holiday while to many others if you don’t have a beau it becomes a day to sulk and mourn about how you are single. Valentine’s Day is actually about Saint Valentine.
Saint Valentine is somewhat shrouded in mystery and legends. “ It is a known fact that Saint Valentine was imprisoned for witnessing the marriages of Christian couples, which was against the law during the reign of Claudius the Goth,” said Mrs. Jane Bender, who teaches Lives of the Saints. “While in prison the legend goes that he wrote sweet notes to other prisoners encouraging them to love God and love their enemies, thus sending “Valentines” to people he cared about.”
The true importance of Valentine’s Day has nothing to do with whether or not you have a Valentine it is about the history and the saint.
“It’s a day to truly celebrate the life of a good saint. St. Valentine had the gift of fortitude and courage and that’s what led him to witness marriages of Christian couples even though he knew there were grave consequences for his actions, said Bender. “He loved his faith and he wanted to see couples married in that faith so they could honor and worship God together as a family. I think every day should be Valentine’s day in a marriage.”
Valentine’s Day means different things for everyone. For Father Wakulich, Valentine’s Day means nothing. “I don’t even think about it, half the time I don’t even remember. For me I celebrate the feast day of St. Cyril and Methodius, they are underated,” Wakulich said.
For those who have loved ones Valentines Day can be expensive with the flowers, cards, and heart shaped candies.
“I feel like Valentine’s Day is totally commercialized, a money making scheme. We have great saints to remember and we light them off as commercial items,” Wakulich said.
On Valentine’s Day we should not only remember the ones we love and buy them gifts to show them how much we love them but we should also, “remember it is a day to celebrate the gift of love and remember the example of the saint whom the day is named after,” Bender said.