By: AVA WOFFORD
Staff Writer
It’s February and we all know what that means. Lunar New Year, Black History Month, and the season of love – Valentine’s Day. While we all know and acknowledge the holiday, have you ever sat down and thought “why do we even have this holiday?”
Would you believe me if I told you the loving holiday actually started in Rome and was a lot darker than you might have been led to believe? There was a Roman festival known as the Feast of Lupercalia that was celebrated between February 13-15. The Romans would kill two animals, skin said animals, and proceed to whip young women. Afterward, men would pull the women’s names from a jar. For the rest of the night, a woman and a man would be coupled. In the 3rd century A.D., Emperor Claudius ll would execute two men on February 14. Both men were named Valentine. The two men were then honored by the Catholic Church with the celebration of Saint Valentine’s Day. The holiday since then has gone through different changes that fit social norms at that time. Nowadays Valentine’s is just a fun activity you can partake in with your friends and family. It is different from culture to culture and shows how the times have changed.
