Saint Valentine’s Day may now be celebrated worldwide but traditions are often very different — and sometimes have nothing at all to do with romance, IgbereTV reports
While in Europe it’s all about couples cozying up, in the United States it is as much about schoolchildren celebrating friendship while in Japan women give chocolates to their bosses.
From pagan festival to a marketing ploy, we look at the rich Valentine’s mix:
– All whipped up –
Valentine’s Day was once a rather violent affair. Its origins are thought to go back to the Roman purification festival of Lupercalia when naked young men would whip young ladies to make them more fertile.
Down the centuries that evolved into only slightly less raucous lotteries that paired young men off with young women at medieval carnivals.
– Martyr to his heart –
The day is also, of course, associated with the cult of third-century Roman Christian martyr Saint Valentine.
He literally lost his head over love — decapitated on the orders of Emperor Claudius, they say, for secretly performing weddings.
According to the legend, Valentine cured his jailer’s blind daughter and the day before his death slipped her a note signed “Your Valentine”.
Unfortunately, there was no happy ending
