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The True WMSCOG | March 19, 2024

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Valentine’s Day and Its Pagan Origins

Valentines Day and Its Pagan Origins - The True WMSCOG

The True History of Valentine’s Day

Valentine’s Day brings on a mixture of emotions for Americans. Generally speaking, it is a day focused on love and romance. Singletons feel the pressure and couples pour out their heart to one another.

the thumb is a lonely finger

But people are not just opening their hearts on Valentine’s Day. They are opening their wallets. According to this info-graph from Forbes.com, we’re looking at spending a whopping $19,700,000,000 on Valentines Day in 2016 (1). That’s like 656667 cars…

Forbes Magazine Infographics for Valentines Day

People are aware that major holidays are highly marketed. But Christians may need to watch more than just their wallet on February 14th. 

Lupercalia: The Original Valentine’s Day

The origin of Valentine’s Day dates back 2,000 years. Ancient Romans celebrated the god Lupercus from February 13-15 in a pagan festival called Lupercalia. Lupercus is identified with Lycean Pan and is derived from lupus, wolf (2). Luperci priests celebrated the festival in the Lupercal; the cave in which Romulus and Remus were supposedly nurtured by their mother, a vestal she-wolf virgin who was raped by the god Mars. Creepy.

she-wolf-romulus-remus
Mosaic depicting the She-wolf with Romulus and Remus, inspired by the legend of the founding of Rome. From Aldborough (UK), about 300-400 CE (Leeds City Museum), (16).

Noel Lenski (Classics Professor at Yale) describes the festival, saying that young men would strip naked (except for the girdles) and would go out to spank the young women’s backsides with goat or dog-skin whips, believing this would improve their fertility. Sometimes the men would pick a name from a lottery of women’s names; keeping the chosen woman as a sexual companion for the year. (6,7). As the Roman civilization became more dominant, soldiers brought the custom to every country they conquered.

Painting of Unknown Artist about Lupercalia

The Pope’s Valentine

In 313 A.D., Roman Emperor Constantine accepted Christianity and made it the official religion of the empire. Despite this, Lupercalia was still celebrated in later empires, such as that of Emperor Anthemius (467-472) (8.). In an effort to Christianize the festival, Pope Gelasius I changed Lupercalia to Saint Valentine’s Day in 496 A.D., declaring Saint Valentine as the patron saint of lovers. 

 

The original lottery of winning a sexual partner for the year shifted to picking a saint to emulate for the year. The change seemed to work; the custom continued for hundreds of years (9, 10).

St. Valentine is actually unknown

However, in 1969, Pope Paul VI removed Saint Valentine’s Day from the Roman Catholic Calendar of Saints, stating “Though the memorial of Saint Valentine is ancient, it is left to particular calendars, since, apart from his name, nothing is known of Saint Valentine except that he was buried on the Via Flaminia on February 14th” (14).

In other words, to Christianize a pagan holiday, a Catholic priest picked a random saint who happened to be buried during Lupercalia. Judging by the billions spent on the holiday this year alone, the removal from the RC calendar doesn’t seem to have had much effect.

What about the Chocolate?

Heart Shaped Chocolate

Even the chocolate associated with Valentine’s Day has a twisted origin. The fifteenth-century Aztec emperor Moctezuma I (1398-1469) believed that eating “chocolate on a regular basis made him more virile and better able to serve his harem” (12, 14). The red rose has become the symbol of love (14). But not randomly. It was a favorite of the goddess Venus who later birthed cupid (15).

Although the “day of love” was once declared holy by a pope in the Catholic Church, it has absolutely nothing to do with the Christian God. Rather, Valentine’s Day is evidently rooted in the pagan festivities of Rome. 

No Valentine for Me, I’m a Christian.

no-thanks-cupid-valentines-day

No more valentine’s day for me. After doing a little research, you can easily see that all the practices contained in Valentine’s day are of pagan origin. The Bible gives a clear warning about these type of practices.

Mark 7:7-9 — They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.’ You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men.” And he said to them: “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions!

Matthew 15:7-9 — You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: “‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.

If you’re Christian, it might be time to reconsider your plan for February 14th. True love is not expressed with a card or a box of chocolates. 

John 14:15 — “If you love me, you will obey what I command.”

[References]
1. Inquisitir, Two Valentine’s Day 2015 Buyer Facts That May Make You Rethink Your Gifts
2. Etymonline, Lupercalia
3. The Ides: Caesar’s Murder and the War for Rome, Stephen Dando-Collins, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2010
4. Ancient History About.com, The God of the Lupercalia, N.S. Gill
5. Wise geek, What is a Girdle?
6. The Oxford Classical Dictionary edited by Simon Hornblower, Antony Spawforth, Esther Eidinow, pg. 892
7. The Telegraph, History of Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2010
8. The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Edward Gibbons, Chapter 36
9. American Catholic, The Origins of St. Valentine’s Day
10. Valentine Day Gift Ideas, Cassandrea Visik, Clinton Gilkie
11. Calendarium Romanum ex Decreto Sacrosancti Œcumenici Concilii Vaticani II Instauratum Auctoritate Pauli PP. VI Promulgatum (Typis Polyglottis Vaticanis, MCMLXIX), p. 117.
12. Merriam Webster Dictionary, Harem
13. National Geographic News, Valentine’s Day: Why Do We Celebrate It? (Hint: Naked Romans), February 13, 2012
14. Flowerexperts, Red Rose Info
15. Encyclopedia Britannica, Cupid 16. This image was first published on Flickr. Original image by Carole Raddato. Uploaded by Carole Raddato, published on 13 May 2015 under the following license: Creative Commons: Attribution-ShareAlike. This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work even for commercial reasons, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms.

Comments

  1. Kailin

    Wow! I really didn’t know all of this history behind Valentines Day. It wouldn’t make sense to celebrate this day if you’re not pagan because that’s it’s origin. Thank you for posting!

  2. Mike Rowley

    This is So Pagan, I knew and felt it but I never thought it would go so deep.. But im so happy that they wrote these things down even as Physical Evidence, exposing the real Deeds of the Evil one.
    I will surely use this so many people will see GODS LIGHT of SALVATION even more clear.
    WOW Thanks..

  3. Kathy L

    So true! Wow! Valentine’s day MAKES ME SICK! I am definitely going to share this to everyone, people are so unaware. Keep posting the truth! I love to continue reading these. I question the reason behind why we do what we do, yet I never looked at valentine’s day like this before, I thought it was a day to share love. How disgusting!

  4. Stephen Binsack

    It’s funny how history can explain itself. Valentines Day is a pagan holiday. A holiday that true Christians should not practice.

    What is the source of love? God Almighty. Not some pagan ritual or holiday passed down from generation to generation.

    Thank God for the truth!

  5. Judy A

    I am so happy to finally understand the origin of this “holiday”. What doesn’t make sense to me is how schools nationwide take a day out of their schedule to practice these things, although they are pagan, but are not allowed to speak about God. I’m sure as more people become aware of the origins, more people will realize the truth about God as well. Truth always prevails.

  6. Iven

    This is a great article. Informative, light and clear. It also brings to mind a verse in the Bible… “my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge,” I certainly wasn’t educated on the topic before and was apparently in some pretty hot water. I hope all people can come to an understanding of the Truth.

  7. Juan M

    This article is awesome. Loved the verses at the end that really put into perspective what these traditions mean in the viewpoint of God.

  8. Talique W

    Wow…. I am so thankful this was brought to light. Growing up we all feel a disconnect but are uncertain why. Now this makes sense, so glad the light has reveal what was hidden in darkness!

  9. Carolyn. A

    Wow this article was so clear people are so blinded by such pagan holidays. I’m so glad to have read this article. True love is really spreading the good news of salvation and keeping the commands of God.

  10. Kathryn

    I always thought Valentine’s Day was really dumb and weird just as an American holiday, but where it really came from and how it was previously kept makes it even weirder! So gross and offensive.

  11. Jonas dert

    Mother is the most beautiful living thing on this earth.

  12. Jonas derr

    Mother is the most beautiful, the most perfect, and the most precious. She is more valuable than all the diamonds on this earth!

  13. Angel

    This is real shocking. I thought just a commercial day for making business and I never knew it was rooted from a religion or what. Well, as a Christian I was shocked to know this fact but I also felt relief that I know the truth. I surely wanted to do the right thing, I’m sure I.ll look at the Valentine day differently from now on. Anyway thanks for making this page!