WHERE DID VALENTINE'S DAY COME FROM?
The ceremony began with the sacrifice of goats and a dog. The youths were anointed with their blood. They were made to wear goat skins (to impersonate Lupercus) and small pieces of goat skin were cut into long strips called Februa. The youths then ran around, striking at any woman that came near them with this Februa. This was considered to bestow fertility to the woman.
The Origin of Valentine’s Day:
The Christian history attributes many different origins of this day. But it is not really a Christian festivals at all, since it is known from history (mentioned in Encyclopedia Britannica) that the in the ancient pagan culture of Rome and Greece, the month of February was always considered as a month of romance, fertility and spring, and history proves that St. Valentines day originated from two most perverted and obscene Roman festivals of fertility called Lupercalia and Feast of Juno Februata both celebrated on the 15th of February..
Lupercalia
This festival celebrated on 15th of February was held to celebrate fertility in the honor of roman god Lupercus also called Faunus, an embodiment of fertility and lust. He had the head and torso of a man, but the hindquarters and horns of a goat
The ceremony began with the sacrifice of goats and a dog. The youths were anointed with their blood. They were made to wear goat skins (to impersonate Lupercus) and small pieces of goat skin were cut into long strips called Februa. The youths then ran around, striking at any woman that came near them with this Februa. This was considered to bestow fertility to the woman.
Feast of Juno Februata:
The feast of goddess Juno Februa was celebrated after the ceremony of Lupercalia. Juno Februa was the roman goddess of love, marriage and women. For this feast, women wrote their names on slips of papers and men would take the slips out. The woman whose name was on the slip would become his partner for the day’s l festivities.
Christianizing Lupercalia and Juno Februata
Christianity was greatly influenced by the Roman pagan philosophy during the reign of the Roman Emperor Constantine I (288 – 337 AD) who accepted Christianity but Pagan festivals continued under his empire and pagan philosophy also integrated into Christianity.
It was in AD 494, that Pope Gelasius I decided to suppress the perverted pagan festivals. He replaced Lupercalia with the Feast of The Purification of Virgin Mary, celebrated till now on 15th of February by the Eastern Rite Catholic Churches.
It is also said that he replaced the Feast of Juno Februata by St. Valentine’s Day and moved it to 14th February. Instead of lottery of girls, the lottery was replaced by names of Christian saints, whom the youths had to copy that day. Different stories and legends were made, attributed to many different people by the name of Valentine, to give credibility to Saint Valentine's Day. The creation of a festival for such obscure figures further proves it was merely an attempt to white wash the pagan celebrations with a label of Christianity since they were not able to get rid them from their culture.
Love is one of the strongest emotions placed in the heart of man - it is a power that can ruin or redeem a life- that can bring joy or painful heartbreak.
Today as the world celebrates this emotion on Valentine’s Day, we see hearts of all sizes and shapes all around, hearts of chocolate and satin. O Yes! It’s Valentines! The day of hearts, red roses, poetry, candies and above all - Love!
This festival in the recent years has seen a sudden boom in our society as well and is now ‘religiously’ celebrated by the young and old both. The media has played a major role in encouraging this festival and this day has become a flourishing business for selling Valentine's day cards, flowers, chocolates, gift items etc.
The question that comes to mind is why should WE Muslims celebrate Valentine’s Day? Is it our occasion? Days and occasions are part of a nation’s identity. They symbolize any religion or culture.
VALENTINE'S DAY TODAY
Whatever the origin of this day, today it seems to have returned to its pagan, vulgar roots with the child-god cupid and open dating being very much a part of it. It is celebrated in many parts of the world in different ways. For instance, in France, a girl befriends the first boy she sees in the morning and if this relationship lasts for a year, they end up getting engaged on the next Valentine’s Day. The Valentine lottery caused severe problems in France and was banned completely in 1776. Later Italy, Hungary, Austria and Germany also rid themselves of this obscene custom. England remained safe until it was under Puritan rule but then Charles II started it again and from there it entered America, where it was first commercialized by A E Howland, who made 5000 dollars from selling Valentine cards. In 1995 one billion valentine cards were delivered in the US and the postal Dept. made an extra profit of $ 30 million. Flowers began to be used in 1300.
Now people all over cash in on this opportunity to kindle the fire in young hearts and instill in their minds the necessity of having a ‘Special Someone’ to love. No wonder last year’s newspaper carried news of a woman who sued her husband for divorce for not giving her anything on Valentine’s. According to her it was absolutely necessary to express one’s love on this day and her husband did not give her anything which meant that he did not love her.
Apparently Valentine’s Day made her feel ‘unloved’ rather than ‘loved’.
What kind of love depends upon gifts for its survival? What kind of love is restricted to one day in the whole year? What kind of love breeds hatred, jealousy and a sense of deprivation in many?
Valentine’s Day also proves exceptionally painful for the not-so-popular kids in school who don’t get as many Valentine cards as their friends do.
In India, this day has come to mean getting dressed in red, valentine cards, hearts, and chocolates. Through these apparently innocent things the occasion promotes the culture of free sex and male-female relations. Also becoming common are public displays of emotions including advertising love messages in newspapers, going out on romantic dates and attending valentine balls and parties. Schools are not far behind in holding such parties for their students. As a result, even young children are fed new ideas of developing lusty feelings and expressing them boldly. Closet romantics are given a chance to emerge. They imitate their favourite movie love scenes in broad daylight. In all this ‘love’ fever Islam is given a backseat to sit and see how it’s teachings are being ridiculed in public.
(Data taken from Wikipedia.org)
(Data taken from Wikipedia.org)
