DID you ever send or receive a valentine, a card or a gift? In many countries it is the custom to send them out for February 14, Valentine Day. It is supposed to be a day celebrated by lovers. Expression of love and friendship should not have to have a day assigned for people to remember those little things in life. It is sad when romantic attachment needs a love holiday to remember to say "I love you". February 14th is the day on which anxious romantics around the world await to be told, in one way or another, “I love you.” But how did the custom start?

Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable says: “Valentine, St. A priest of Rome who was imprisoned for succouring persecuted Christians. He became a convert and, . . . he was clubbed to death. His day is 14 February. . . “The ancient custom of choosing Valentines has only accidental relation to [the] saint, being essentially a relic of the old Roman Lupercalia . . . or from association with the mating season of birds. It was marked by the giving of presents and nowadays by the sending of a card on which cupids, transfixed hearts, etc., are depicted.”

In Rome many worshiped a similar god named Faunus. He too was depicted as half man and half goat. Worship of Faunus was prominent at Lupercalia, an orgiastic festival that was observed each year on February 15. During this festival scantily clad men raced around a hill, brandishing goatskin whips. Women who wanted to bear children stood near the path of these runners. Striking a woman with a whip, the Romans believed, would ensure her fertility And what does Cupid have to do with Valentine Day? The same source says: “Cupid (Lat[in] cupido, desire, love). The Roman god of love, identified with the Greek Eros. He is usually represented as a beautiful winged boy, blindfolded, and carrying a bow and arrows.”

The roots of what is now called Valentine Day can be traced back to ancient Greece, where worship of Pan flourished. This mythical half-man-half-goat fertility god had a wild, unpredictable nature that struck terror into humans. Aptly the English word “panic” literally means “of Pan.” Pan was supposed to watch the flocks while playing his pipes. However, he was easily distracted. Pan had many love affairs with nymphs and goddesses. One sculpture shows Pan making advances to Aphrodite, the goddess of love. Eros, the god of love, hovers above them flapping his wings—much like the Cupid found on valentines today.

The World Book Encyclopedia gives further information, offering various theories on the origin of Valentine Day practices. “According to one story, the Roman Emperor Claudius II in the A.D. 200’s forbade young men to marry. The emperor thought single men made better soldiers. A priest named Valentine disobeyed the emperor’s order and secretly married young couples. . . . Many stories say that Valentine was executed on February 14 about A.D. 269. In A.D. 496, Saint Pope Gelasius I named February 14 as St. Valentine’s Day.” Regardless of the true origin of the practice, it is evident that it is rooted in ancient pagan beliefs and in Christendom’s listing of so-called “saints.” Valentine Day is also another excuse for commercial exploitation of an often uninformed public.—2 Corinthians 6:14-18. Not only this holiday but others as well like Christmas a holiday of gift giving and sharing emotion with family and friends. It has become such a greeding thing. Commericalized by the stores figuring and planning their income around holidays. They start as early as acceptable by the public so as to make sure they grab all the sales possible.

Where is the love and the geniue feeling with people today? Have we truly lost that initmate feeling? The natural affection for each other? If we watch the greed of people and how these holiday changes their lifes today we can say that some have definelty lost their natural feeling. All they care about is getting what is popular and expenses. There certainly is no objection to having wholesome good times together as a family, giving gifts and sending greetings to one’s friends to let them know that they are loved. But it should be evident that it shows no real love for others if these things are done in a way that encourages them to practice customs that you yourself know to be pagan. It is an Impersonal love. It means more to me when someone out of the clear blue sends me a card or a gift "just because". That is geniue love.