“It is well for his peace that the saint goes to his martyrdom. He is spared the sight of the horror of his harvest.”

“Although the mid-February holiday celebrating love and lovers remains wildly popular, the confusion over its origins led the Catholic Church, in 1969, to drop St. Valentine's Day from the Roman calendar of official, worldwide Catholic feasts.
The roots of St. Valentine's Day lie in the ancient Roman festival of Lupercalia, which was celebrated on Feb. 15. For 800 years the Romans had dedicated this day to the god Lupercus. On Lupercalia, a young man would draw the name of a young woman in a lottery and would then keep the woman as a sexual companion for the year.
Pope Gelasius I was, understandably, less than thrilled with this custom. So he changed the lottery to have both young men and women draw the names of saints whom they would then emulate for the year (a change that no doubt disappointed a few young men). Instead of Lupercus, the patron of the feast became Valentine. For Roman men, the day continued to be an occasion to seek the affections of women, and it became a tradition to give out handwritten messages of admiration that included Valentine's name.
There was also a conventional belief in Europe during the Middle Ages that birds chose their partners in the middle of February. Thus the day was dedicated to love, and people observed it by writing love letters and sending small gifts to their beloved. Legend has it that Charles, duke of Orleans, sent the first real Valentine card to his wife in 1415, when he was imprisoned in the Tower of London. (He, however, was not beheaded, and died a half-century later of old age.)”

 Valentine’s day is a nice idea, it like so many of our traditions is commercialized and is really rather shallow.  I like the idea of a day set aside to remember those closest to us and to celebrate the concept of love, but I think it would be a lot nicer without Hallmark and Russell-Stover foisting pink and red teddybears on us.  So, in summation: bah.  Humbug.

Don't forget to check out the stuff under the "Reviews" tab!

 I’ve also put a new post on Don’t Forget This Poem. 

Quote of the day:
Rich bachelors should be heavily taxed.  It is not fair that some men should be happier than others.
            -Oscar Wilde

Audio Clip of the Day:
Can be found here.  Grats to Dankster for identifying the last clip as being from “Ferris Bueler’s Day Off” one of my favorite movies.  Today’s clip is the standard 2pts. Scoring is as follows:  Buddahgazelle6, Butterfly8, ChrisRusso12, Dankster2, DarkArtAlliance2, Darklao2, EmilyE2, LaLune2, Malenkaya2.

Picture of the Day: