Valentine’s Day – what is it and why do we celebrate it the way we do?

Since we’re only a few days until Valentine’s Day as I sit here writing, I thought it might be appropriate to talk a little about this “holiday,” its roots, and how we got to where we are today.


While the exact origin of Valentine’s Day cannot be pointed to with any certainty, the best guessers believe its roots came from an ancient pagan festival of Lupercalia, which predated Christianity and was celebrated in the middle of February. It’s a Roman festival that involved feasting and pairing off of partners. However, unlike our Valentine’s Day, it was a bit wild and filled with debauchery, blood, and sacrifice. It was a tradition for the hide of a sacrificed goat to be cut into strips, dipped in blood, and priests would go around slapping woman with these strips. While the practice was welcomed because it was believed to make women more fertile, I can’t see it catching on today. This Valentine’s Day, I could take a strip of steak (only because I don’t know where to get goat) and slap my dear bride with it but then I’m sure my face would be on a milk carton in no time at all with a “Have you see this idiot?” caption. It is believed that as the Romans turned away from their pagan beliefs and embraced Christianity, the holiday evolved into honoring St. Valentine. In fact, Lupercalia was banned at the end of the 5th Century…though I can’t imagine why.


Who was St. Valentine, you ask? Okay, maybe you weren’t asking but I’m going to try to explain it anyway. One account is that, during the 3rd Century, Emperor Claudius II of Rome executed two different men named Valentine on February 14th. One story says he was a priest who was arrested for defying a Roman order that prohibited soldiers from marrying and he was executed for continuing to marry soldiers in secret. Another story says that Valentine was a priest who was imprisoned, fell in love with one of his visitors, and started writing her letters. He apparently sent a letter before his execution that he signed, “From your Valentine.” Both stories have romantic undertones but neither can be verified. In the end, all we can say is that Valentine’s Day was named for a martyred St. Valentine.


The renowned Romantic English poet Geoffrey Chaucer and William Shakespeare can both be credited with popularizing the romantic version of St. Valentine’s Day that we celebrate today.


To me, Valentine’s Day is more than just buying some candy in a heart-shaped box or a bouquet of roses and going out for a romantic dinner – though I’ve done both of these on many a Valentine’s Day. For me, it’s honoring the love of my life. I wouldn’t be who I am or where I am today without by special Valentine. I’m blessed to have the life I have with my beautiful bride and give thanks to that fact every day. One more “official” day in the year to celebrate my Valentine is okay with me.


For those that know us well, you know our story. For those that don’t, let me indulge myself and describe how we met. It would be too good to be true to say that we met on Valentine’s Day…it would also be a lie. I was assigned to Germany as my first assignment in the Army. I met Stephani through mutual friends at the very end of September of 1975 and we started dating a week or so later. We were married six weeks later and that “big” delay was because I had to process paperwork through the military and the German government, as well as get my birth certificate from California – which took some time. Back in those days (you know, when dinosaurs roamed the earth), I actually had to fill out an “Application for Permission to Marry” and have my company commander approve it. I was pretty confident he would approve it since his wife was German. At our German civil ceremony, I had to have a court approved interpreter with me – I guess to ensure a naive young American wouldn’t think he was signing up for a cruise but instead was getting married. As an aside, I spoke better German than the court approved interpreter (he was from some Eastern European country) so I wasted the 40 Deutsch Marks I had to pay him. In any event, last November saw us celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary. So, if anyone tells you that love at first sight isn’t real, I beg to differ…it’s real.


This coming February 14th, really celebrate and honor the love of your life – and a final word to the wise: men, don’t slap your wife with a strip of bloody goat; it won’t go well.


Jerry Hashimura
Pahrump, NV

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