Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, February 14, 1994 TAG: 9402150014
SECTION: NEWSFUN PAGE: 3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: WENDI GIBSON RICHERT STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Short
When every fowl cometh there to choose his mate.''
- Geoffrey Chaucer, an English poet of the 1300s.
What Chaucer meant was that birds begin to pair off on Valentine's Day. That's the day they find their sweethearts.
They probably didn't bring cards, candy and roses, of course, but centuries ago Valentine's Day meant pretty much what it means today.
World Book Encyclopedia says Valentine's Day probably began in various ways. One was the belief that birds found their mates on Valentine's Day.
Others have traced the holiday to the oman festival called [ upercalia. }]This was held every Feb. 15 to ensure protection from wolves.
Still, others trace the holiday's origins to two saints named Valentine in the early Christian church. One saint disobeyed an order by the Roman Emperor Claudius II in the A.D. 200s. The emperor believed unmarried men made better soldiers, so he forbade young men to marry. But St. Valentine secretly performed marriage ceremonies anyway.
The other St. Valentine was a Christian who was friends with many children during the Roman Empire. The Romans put him in prison because he would not worship their gods. The children missed him so much that they tossed notes to him through the bars of his jail window. Those may have been the first Valentine cards ever.
That St. Valentine was executed on Feb. 14 A.D. 269. Then, in A.D. 496, Pope Gelasius named Feb. 14 as St. Valentine's Day.
by CNB