Valentines Day

It's Valentines Day today. Let's get into some history of valentines. February 14 is the traditional day for Valentines. It is a day where lovers express their love for each other. Although it is celebrated as a lover's holiday today, it originated in the 5th Century Rome as a tribute to St. Valentine, a Catholic bishop.

For 800 years prior to the establishment of Valentine's Day, the Romans practiced a pagan celebration in mid-February commemorating young men's rite of passage to the god Lupercus. The celebration featured a lottery in which young men would draw the names of teenage girls from a box. The girl assigned to each young man in that manner would be his sexual companion during the remaining year. (Dun wtfbbq why am I not born then?)

Then came Pope Gelasius. In an effort to do away with the pagan festival, he ordered a slight change in the lottery. Instead of the names of young women, the box would contain the names of saints. Of coz, the rules had changed too. The game was to emulate the ways of the saint they drew during the rest of the year. Needless to say, many young Roman men were not too pleased with the changes. (If I'm a Roman man, I will go knnccbwtfbbq. It's obvious rite, unless there are many porkchops during that time which I seriously doubt so. Oops, no harm being done here!)

The Church then looked for a suitable patron saint of love to take his place. That's where they found Valentine, whom later was beheaded by Emporer Claudius. Claudies had determined that married men made poor soldiers. Therefore he banned marriage from his empire. However, this Valentine guy would secretly marry young men that came to him. When Claudius found out about this he jailed Valentine. During the days in prison, Valentine fell in love with the blind daughter of his jailer. It is said that his great love for her managed to miraciously heal her from blindness before his death. Before he was taken to death, he signed a farewell message to her, "From your Valentine." That's the phrase that has been used up till now.

Do you know that:-

• During Valentine's Day in Japan and Korea, women give candy, flowers and chocolates to all their male co-workers. (Hey, we Msian shud go towards this way too)
• In Korea, males who did not receive anything for Valentine's Day gather to celebrate Black Day on April 14th. They are suppose to eat Jajangmyun(Chinese-style noodles in black sauce).
• In Chinese culture, Valentines Day is known as "The Night of Sevens". It falls on the 7th day of the 7th month of the Lunar calender.
• In Iran, this date is discreetly celebrated by most lovers despite the disaproval of such occasion by their Islamic govt. (They say it's a copycat of the West)
• In Finland, Valentine's Day is called a Friend's Day. This day is more about remembering friends than your loved ones.

Happy Valentine's Day to couples out there. To those singles, Happy Black Day :P

P.S : I'm still single, anybody wanna date me?