The Day of Love, right?

According to the Greeting Card Association, an estimated one billion valentine cards are sent each year, making Valentine's Day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year. (An estimated 2.6 billion cards are sent for Christmas.) And 85% of all cards purchased are by women. Whoa...

This is interesting holiday (if we can call it that) isn't it? I mean, it's really a myth how it started. Some versions are Christian and some pagan. One legend is when Emperor Claudius II of Rome outlawed marriage for young men because he thought single men were better warriors. But what was believed to have happened, was a priest named Saint Valentine or Valentinus defied the Emperor and performed marriages in secret. He was later found out and killed, making him a "martyr" according to the Catholic Church. The pagan legend of the Lupercalia festival is much more disturbing. It has to do with sacrificing a goat, having young boys cut it up dipping it in blood and slapping it around town, both on women and field crops. Gross!

Ok, why am I writing all this? Well for me, I have always wanted to know the meaning and origins of holidays. It's important to be knowledgeable in our society. As a believer, I need to know what i believe and why. There are many opinions of Valentine's Day. It has definitely become something it shouldn't have, just look at that outrageous statistic earlier. One billion cards are sent, I wonder how many flowers are bought. America loves to emphasize things in single days. We celebrate mom's and dad's only once a year, or our veterans or the working force. I'm lead to think back about celebrations in biblical times. How did they celebrate? With one great word: FESTIVALS!

The value of these great religious festivals was threefold, According to bible-history.com: "(1) Religious effects. --They preserved the religious faith of the nation and religious unity among the people. They constantly reminded the people of the divinely-wrought deliverances of the past; promoted gratitude and trust; and testified the reverence of the people for the temple and its sacred contents. Besides this was the influence of well-conducted temple services upon the synagogues through the land. (2) Political effects. --The unity of the nation would be insured by this fusion of the tribes; otherwise they would be likely to constitute separate tribal states. They would carry back to the provinces glowing accounts of the wealth, power and resources of the country. (3) Social effects. --They promoted friendly intercourse between traveling companions; distributed information through the country at a time when the transmission of news was slow and imperfect; and imported into remote provincial districts a practical knowledge of all improvements in arts and sciences."

This is all just to make us think. Valentine's Day, why do you celebrate it, if at all. My wife and I tell each other how much we love each other every day, many times a day. I've found the love of my life, my soul-mate and all that stuff. But to be honest, it is the one day she knows I'll buy her flowers! (Let's be real, I don't do it that often). So I know she likes that part of the day.

Valentine's Day can be what ever you want it. Celebrate how you will. But I suggest making more Festivals throughout the year! (That would mean more time off of work.) Nice.

(thanks to history.com & bible-history.com for the info)

Head over to Dan's blog for a very interesting take on this Day.