Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue
Something/Someone Old
Happy St. Valentine's Day!
In the 400s, Pope Gelasius named the 14th of February the feast of St. Valentine. Who was Valentine? Well, there are a few Valentines who were Christian martyrs, or at least there is more than one who has stories told about him.
There's this guy:
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.
And then there's this guy:
Other stories suggest that Valentine may have been killed for attempting to help Christians escape harsh Roman prisons, where they were often beaten and tortured. According to one legend, an imprisoned Valentine actually sent the first “valentine” greeting himself after he fell in love with a young girl–possibly his jailor’s daughter–who visited him during his confinement. Before his death, it is alleged that he wrote her a letter signed “From your Valentine,” an expression that is still in use today.
However, as this column has so often discussed (heh), the saint was imposed on top of an Older pagan holiday. In this case, it was 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.
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.
I think I'd rather get some candy and flowers.
Lupercalia was outlawed at the same time Gelasius instituted St. Valentine's Day, so, uh, I think the Vatican was being pretty obvious here.
It was the Middle Ages, particularly in France and England, that brought us a more modern conception of the day:
During the Middle Ages, it was commonly believed in France and England that February 14 was the beginning of birds’ mating season, which added to the idea that the middle of Valentine’s Day should be a day for romance.
Valentine greetings were popular as far back as the Middle Ages, though written Valentine’s didn’t begin to appear until after 1400. The oldest known valentine still in existence today was a poem written in 1415 by Charles, Duke of Orleans, to his wife while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London following his capture at the Battle of Agincourt.
Something New
I don't usually pay attention to celebrities' love lives, but I'm so highly impressed with the work of everyone in 13 Reasons Why, and Brandon Flynn's in particular, that I thought I'd celebrate his coming out--and public kiss of Sam Smith. Incredible work playing Justin, Mr. Flynn--you made him one of the most complex characters in the show. Cool pin, too.
https://www.popsugar.com/celebrity/New-Celebrity-Couples-2017-43172690
Something Borrowed
I'm not going to repeat myself about Lupercalia. Let's look for something else Borrowed about this holiday...
Apparently Poland didn't have a St. Valentine's Day, per se, until after the Berlin Wall fell. At that point, they borrowed Valentine's Day from the West. Here's a fascinating bit of history and culture from a Romanian lady in Poland:
When you think about Valentine's Day, you mostly think about the USA and the postcards with hearts popping all over... you would not say this is a typical Polish tradition. I am coming from an ex-communist country - just like Poland was - and I know how ones the curtain fell we were dead set upon the task of assimilating as much as we could from America and it's way of life. The young ones welcomed Valentine's Day with arms wide open.
Of course we always had celebrations for Women's Day (on the 8th of March) and in Romania we actually have a traditional celebration for couples, called Dragobete (celebrated, if I remember right, on the 24th of February) but as far as I know and asked Polish people, they did not have a similar tradition. It was, of course, "borrowed".
Now, in Poland, Valentine's Day is celebrated on the 14th of February and the day is named "Walentynki" (after the Saint that gave the celebration it's name). Opened on the 30th of September 2010, Kraków prides itself with a Lovers Bridge - Kladka Ojca Bernatka (Father Bernatka's Bridge). The bridge links the Kazimierz and the Podgorze district of Kraków and spans over the Vistula river, providing wonderful views. The bridge is all pedestrian (bikes are allowed) and the couples like to "show the world" their love by putting love locks on it and throwing the key in the river. Some locks are engraved with name and date, and they come in all shapes and sizes.
http://twistedredladybug.blogspot.com/2016/02/do-polish-people-celebrate...
That is a pretty damned cool custom for a borrowed holiday. I gotta hand it to the Polish.
Something Blue
I seriously disliked this movie when it came out. I was twelve, and already aiming somewhere between the sensibilities of a hippie and a goth girl. I guess that would be a beatnik? Too bad they no longer existed when I showed up.
Anyway, I was not into teen romance movies nor into weird kids-coming-into-their-sexuality-oddly-because-of-strange-circumstances stories--Flowers in the Attic was not a favorite of mine. So I never actually went to see this:
The song didn't help. I actually really like both Diana Ross and Lionel Ritchie, but I was just not, not into this song in early high school:
But I'm older now, and hopefully have grown beyond the prejudices of my thirteen-year-old self. I actually like the song better now. So maybe I should give the movie a try?
Happy Valentine's, all! And a special shout-out to the single folks out there. I was one of you for about 36 years, and I remember how I felt on this day. Celebrate yourselves today. Do something awesome. You don't have to be attached to be kickass.
Comments
Thanks for the Valentine history!
I taught 8th grade most of my career. One year at the end of a Valentine's day at school I was hanging out in the hall next to my classroom. One of my students didn't get the card they had hoped for that day (or perhaps someone else got the card she desired?) and she summed up her thoughts, "Valentine's day sucks!"
Despite her disappointment, she's now grown and married...and I hope has a good day today.
Here's hoping we all adapt to life's little disappointments and have some one or something to love. Have a lovely day folks!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
some kind of love
@QMS A great song, despite
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Good morning CSTMS and everybody else. Borrowed and
xtianized lupercalilan expedia delicious suchwhat seems sadly devolved into just another Hallmark holiday, especially for the very young subjected to schoolday v-card exchange rituals. And shopping? Candy and nighties everywhere, including candy in hardware stores and nighties in grocery stores. Really.
OK, curmudgeon mode off. Happy Valentine's day everybody. My still sleeping wife, FWIW recieved, as usual, a single red rose and a Baby Ruth candy bar.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
@enhydra lutris Well, it would be better
I was delighted to find this is on YouTube--one of my favorite invention exchanges from Mystery Science Theater 3000:
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Baby Ruth
Happy Heart's Day, CStMS. Hope this finds you
feeling well. Loved the Valentine history. Hubby and one of his oldest pals are hardcore Tullheads. He met Ian Anderson in person backstage decades ago in St. Pete. Didn't know who it was until the band hit the stage. This particular tune is one of the best lyrical songs penned in rock. It's one of my 2 favorites by the band. Hope y'all enjoy it. I know I will. Rec'd!!
Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.
@orlbucfan This is one of the most
We all have one like that, regardless of how happily we're currently involved, don't we?
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
that is
very brave of you, to reconsider your aversion to The Blue Lagoon. I don't know that I will ever go there, because I have an Allergy to Brooke Shields, but it is certainly possible to appreciate the appeal of such things, without feeling it yourself. Like, when I took my daughter to the pre-pubescent-packed theater to view Titanic, I would rather have been viewing A Night To Remember, but I understood the rapture-effect on those assembled of the magical doom-match of Jack and Rose.
The Blue Lagoon could never be made today, because of the mass insanity of the Americans that the human sexual organs only begin to function on a person's 18th birthday. Shields was 14 when she made that film, and in it she is Naked and Touching—that would never be permitted in the current hysteria. These days, production on The Reader will be shut down for several months, until the calendar says David Kross is 18; in this way, no one will go to the jail, when Kross gets Naked and Touches co-star Kate Winslet. Similarly, Terrence Malick was required to take a meat-ax to The New World, excising any and all footage in which Q'orianka Kilcher might be perceived as engaging in salaciousness. Kilcher was 14 during filming; her character, Pocahontas, was younger than that when, in The Real World, she dallied with John Smith. But such is Horror and Anathema and Evil and Criminal and Bad and Wrong, and so the Americans should forget all about it. And Neil Young, he should go into the penis prison, for this song:
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vT2I8LSHjAY]
@hecate Are we sure Pocahontas
I worry, in general, about how kids and teenagers are treated by Hollywood. The track record isn't great. But for me, the issue is not one of sexuality, but consent. It can be damnably hard to figure out whether an underage person who might be getting pressured by parents, agents, etc., is making what I'd consider a free choice. But that applies to all sorts of things, not just sex.
It's obvious to me that human sexuality develops before age of consent. It's an overreaction--or perhaps a misguided reaction--to the epidemic of childhood sexual abuse that produces the silliness you describe. Because obviously, the development of human sexuality, which is a process and not a light switch that flashes on at 18, is not an excuse for older people to inflict their sexuality on a child. IOW, playing doctor--between kids of a similar age--is generally OK, and teen sexuality is generally OK, as long as neither is involved with bullying. But adults should keep their hands off people below the age of consent.
If I found myself loving a 16- or 17-year-old, and there were indications it could be reciprocated, I'd be willing to wait a couple years rather than step over the line. If I found myself loving someone younger, frankly, I'd be worried.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
what
is known without doubt is that women of her tribe were fully sexual beings well before the age of 18.
I deal with people accused of sex crimes all the time. All of them are different. The rigid assumptions built into the law frustrate justice. Such as the legal fiction that anyone under 18 is incapable of providing consent, and anyone over 18 is. Currently there is the female schoolteacher flagellated as a sex criminal for congress with two 17-year-old males, who inaugurated the thing via tubes-flirting that included sending her Weiner photos. And the 19-year-old virgin who fell into the sack with a sexually experienced 13-year-old, and is now looking at prison. Etc.
Hi, CStMS
An intelligent, lovely open thread, as always
Lupercalia - Leave it to Italian priests to figure out ways to make women want many pregnancies and then convince them getting hit will make their dreams come true. (Any resemblance between that sentence and present day faiths is unintentional. O.K. That's a lie.)
Today is Wednesday, February 14, making it both Hump Day and Valentine's Day.
Make of that what you will.
Love everyone you can possibly convince yourself to love, platonically or otherwise. It's so much better for your body and soul than negative emotions.
A holiday hug for everyone who wants one.
@HenryAWallace Good morning, HAW. Thanks
I sometimes worry that as I age, I love less readily than before. I'm so much less trusting.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Good morning, all!
Happy Valentine's Day! I am still under the weather, but my honey brought me flowers and candy.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Happy Valentines Day, yourself. Please do get better.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Hear, hear!! :-)
Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.
No Valentine's Day on the Catholic Church Calendar this year.
This is because February 14th fell squarely on Ash Wednesday; and the start of Lent trumps what is now considered a minor Memorial.
At least one Archdiocese, that of Chicago, moved the celebration of Valentine's Day to the previous day:
Makes me happy to be a Pagan! Io Lupercalia!
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
Get well soon. I was feeling bad for a month now
better with prescriptions, what a change they made.
Hope this gives you a chuckle, it sure did me. (Pro tip open and look at the twitter thread)
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.