Vday

[amberalert (deleted)]

I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Valentine's Day and I hope that even if you're single you have a great day and show your love to the ones you care for in your life! I know this is a commercial holiday and it's a bit ridiculous that we "need" a designated holiday to express our love when we should be doing it everyday, but I hope it's been a good day nonetheless.

That's all folks!

-Amber

[chazzc1980 (deleted)]

amberalert wrote: I know this is a commercial holiday and it's a bit ridiculous that we "need" a designated holiday to express our love when we should be doing it everyday

It's nice to see someone else feel the same way and not afraid to say it, I've felt that if you love and care about someone it shouldn't have just one commercial holiday but is shown everyday.

Anyways, hope it was a great day for everyone. :)

[lolli49 (deleted)]

`It started out with a dog, goat and sex! Then the pope got involved and tried to subtitute the day with a church based "holiday" of sorts which stood until Halmark took it over. Personally, I'm in it for the melt in our mouth, lick your fingers clean chocolate!

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."