Each year on February 14th,
countless people
celebrate a day
known as 'St. Valentine's Day.'
Millions of heart-shaped cards and boxes of
chocolates are given as gifts
on this so-called 'Day of Love.'
In schools, from pre-school and kindergarten on up,
children draw names from boxes
and exchange heart-shapes notes which
'pair off' the children
and is said to be 'all in fun.'
People of all ages get into the act,
and the words that are heard everywhere on this day are:
'Be My Valentine.'
The sad fact is that most people
never examine the origin
of the pagan customs
that they ignorantly cling to.
So, what is the origin of this unusual day?
Why is there a preoccupation with the color red?
Where did the heart shape come from,
and what does it mean?
These and other queries will now be answered,
as we examine the roots and pagan origin
of this popular day.
First up, let's dig a little bit into,
why is it called, Valentine's Day.
And, who was Saint Valentine?
So, In the third century, the Roman Empire was ruled by Emperor Claudius II.
He was nicknamed Claudius the Cruel because of his harsh leadership and his tendency
for getting into wars and abusing his people.
In fact, he was getting into so many wars
during the third century that he was having a difficult time recruiting enough soldiers.
Claudius believed that recruitment for the army is down because Roman men did not want
to leave their loved ones or families behind,
so, he canceled all marriages and engagements in Rome.
Thousands of couples saw their hopes of matrimony
dashed by the single act of a tyrant.
And no one seemed interested in standing up to the emperor.
But a simple Christian priest named Valentine did come forward and stood up for love.
He began to secretly marry soldiers before they went off to war, despite the emperor’s orders.
In 269 Anno Domini,
Emperor Claudius found out about the secret ceremonies.
He had Valentine thrown into prison and deemed
that he would be put to death.
As Valentine was awaiting execution,
he fell in love with a blind girl
who happened to be the jailer’s daughter.
On the eve of his execution, with no writing instruments available,
Valentine is said to have written the girl a sonnet in ink
that he squeezed from violets.
Legend has it that his words made the blind woman see again.
And those famous words were,
"From your Valentine".
The next day Valentine was clubbed to death by Roman executioners.
Now let's take a look at the pagan origin of this day
and how it was connected to the story of Saint Valentine.
This goes back to an ancient Roman fertility festival called Lupercalia,
which was celebrated from February 13th to the 15th in honor of Lupercus and Faunas,
Roman gods of fertility and agriculture,
as well as the Roman founders,
Romulus and Remus.
The Romans believed that these gods would protect Rome from roving bands of wolves,
which devoured livestock and people.
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
were believed to have been cared for
by a she-wolf or lupa.
There 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,
whipping both women and crops with the goat's 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.
These 'love notes' were called 'billets.'
The men of Rome would each draw a billet,
and the woman whose name was on it became his sexual lust partner
with whom he would fornicate until the next Lupercalia or February 14th the following year.
Thus, February 14th became a day of unbridled sexual lust.
The color 'red' was sacred to that day because of the blood.
The heart-shape was not a representation of the human heart,
which looks nothing like it.
This shape represents the human female matrix,
or opening to the chamber of pagan copulation,
and also the representation of the figurative head of the goat.
Now how this pagan festival became Valentine's day?
When Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire,
church leaders at Rome wanted to do away with the pagan festivals.
Lupercalia was high on their list.
But the Roman citizens rejected their cancellation.
It was not until A.D. 496 that the church at Rome was able to do anything about Lupercalia.
Powerless to get rid of it, Pope Gelasius instead changed it from February 15th to the 14th
and called it St. Valentine’s Day.
The church whitewashed Lupercalia even further.
Instead of putting the names of girls into a box,
the names of “saints” were drawn by both boys and girls.
It was then each person’s duty to emulate the life of the saint whose name he or she had drawn.
This was Rome’s vain attempt to “whitewash” a pagan observance by “Christianizing” it.
Though the church at Rome had banned the sexual lottery,
young men still practiced a much toned-down version,
sending women whom they desired handwritten romantic messages containing St. Valentine’s name.
In the following centuries, people began using Feb. 14th as an excuse to pen verses to their love objects.
Industrialization made it easier with mass-produced
illustrated cards adorned with poetry.
Then along came Cadbury, Hershey’s, and other chocolate manufacturers
marketing sweets on Valentine’s Day.
And every year on this day billions of dollars are wasted on cards and chocolates.
Like this year, Americans are expected to spend $27.4 billion on Valentine’s Day Alone.
For the same amount of money more than 80 million hungry school-age children across the globe
can be fed for six years.
This day marks the highest rate of suicide.
It should be without saying that honest seekers of truth should avoid Valentine's Day
like a plague or curse.
Don't simply go along with the customary celebrations and festivals of the pagan world,
but examine closely and find out their origin and deadly effects.
In conclusion, we must ask ourselves,
'Should we be associated in any way with this pagan celebration of satanic origins?
Should we be doing what the pagans have done for so many years and try to justify it as 'love'?'
You're the one to decide now.
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