Saint Valentine's day is 14th February. For my Christian brothers and sisters this is definitely a pagan day of celebration which detours from the Word of God and His Holy Spirit.
The celebrations of St. Valentine's Day are steeped in legend and mystery; indeed the motives behind the day's creation and even St. Valentine himself have been shrouded in controversy and doubt.
Saint Valentine's Day embraces a time of year that is historically associated with love and fertility. It encompasses the sacred marriage of Zeus and Hera in Ancient Athens and the Ancient Roman festival of Lupercus, the god of fertility.
The priests of Lupercus would perform a traditional purification ritual, slaughtering goats to the god, and after consuming wine, they would run through the streets of Rome holding aloft the skins of the goats touching anyone they met. The occasion compelled floods of young women to the streets in the belief that being touched would improve their chances of conceiving and bring forth easy childbirth. There remains some speculation over the exact date of the celebration.
Another version of the story adds more details and authenticity to its origin.
Those Wild and Crazy Romans:
From Feb. 13 to 15, the Romans celebrated the feast of Lupercalia.
The men sacrificed a goat and a dog, then whipped women with the hides of the animals they had just slain.
The Roman romantics "were drunk. They were naked," says Noel Lenski, a historian at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Young women would actually line up for the men to hit them, Lenski says. They believed this would make them fertile.
The brutal fete included a matchmaking lottery, in which young men drew the names of women from a jar. The couple would then be, um, coupled up for the duration of the festival – or longer, if the match was right.
The ancient Romans may also be responsible for the name of our modern day of love. Emperor Claudius II executed two men — both named Valentine — on Feb. 14 of different years in the 3rd century A.D.
Their martyrdom was honored by the Catholic Church with the celebration of St. Valentine's Day.
Later, Pope Gelasius I muddled things in the 5th century by combining St. Valentine's Day with Lupercalia to expel the pagan rituals.
But the festival was more of a theatrical interpretation of what it had once been. Lenski adds, "It was a little more of a drunken revel, but the Christians put clothes back on it. That didn't stop it from being a day of fertility and love."
Shakespeare In Love:
As the years went on, the holiday grew sweeter. Chaucer and Shakespeare romanticized it in their work, and it gained popularity throughout Britain and the rest of Europe.
Handmade paper cards became the tokens-du-jour in the Middle Ages.Eventually, the tradition made its way to the New World.
The industrial revolution ushered in factory-made cards in the 19th century. And in 1913, Hallmark Cards of Kansas City, Mo., began mass producing valentines. February has not been the same since.
Today, the holiday is big business: According to market research firm IBIS World, Valentine's Day sales reached $17.6 billion last year; this year's sales are expected to total $18.6 billion dollars in America alone. It is easy to see from my perspective that from its origin to its shrewd capitalistic ending Valentines day has nothing to do with love, or the truth of God.
As an estimated one billion cards are exchanged this St Valentine's Day - spare a thought for the ancient Pagan custom that the Catholic Church has tried to hide from you, for St Valentine's Day is the Eve of Lupercalia, the Pagan Roman festival of fertility."--St Valentine's Day or Ancient Pagan Sex Rite?
Please scroll down and read my blog entitled; "Christians financially supporting Satan "
Posted 10/10 /12 to see how Christians are being decieved to support the very enemies of The Kingdom of God.
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