09/02/2020
What are The Origins of Valentine's Day? What is Valentine's Day?
Valentine's Day has its origins in paganism and basically is a holdover of a Spring fertility/fornication holiday.
Even the old World Book Encyclopedia (Valentine's Day. Volume 19. 1966, pp.205-206) states:
..the customs of the day have nothing to do with the lives of the saints. They probably come from an ancient Roman festival called Lupercalia which took place every February 15. The festival honored Juno, the Roman goddess of women and marriage, and Pan, the god of nature...The Romans celebrated their feast of Lupercalia as a lovers' festival for young people. Young men and women chose partners for the festival by drawing names from a box...After the spread of Christianity, churchmen tried to give Christian meaning to the pagan festival. In 496, Pope Gelasius changed the Lupercalia festival of February 15 to Saint Valentine's Day February 14. But the sentimental meaning of the old festival has remained to the present time. Historians disagree about the identity of St. Valentine".
Furthermore it also states:
"LUPERCALIA...was celebrated on February 15 in honor of Faunus, a rural Italian god. Faunus was later identified with Pan, the god of herds and fertility...Priests...ran around striking all the women they met (Lupercalia. Volume 12. 1966, p.456).
The pagan being named Cupid (a supposed son of Venus) was also involved. According to pagan mythology, anyone being hit by Cupid's arrow falls in love with the first person he/she sees. One source was bold enough to state,
The church replaced elements of various love-gods (Juno Februata, Eros, Cupid, K**a, Priapus) with St. Valentine, an imaginary Christian. A number of contradictory biographies were created for him...By taking over some of the features of the Pagan gods and goddesses, St. Valentine became the patron saint of lovers...St. Valentine's Day can be traced back to Lupercalia, the Roman "festival of sexual license" (ST. VALENTINE AND VALENTINE'S DAY, http://www.religioustolerance.org/valentine1.htm, February 6, 2004).
The Apostle Jude warned that people claiming to be Christian leaders would turn towards behaviors like sexual license:
4 For there have been some intruders, who long ago were designated for this condemnation, godless persons, who pervert the grace of our God into licentiousness and who deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. (Jude 4, New American Bible of the United States Conference Catholic Bishops)
Notice what the Roman Catholics teach:
The roots of St. Valentine's Day lie in the ancient Roman festival of Lupercalia, which was celebrated on Feb. 15. For 800 years the Romans had dedicated this day to the god Lupercus. On Lupercalia, a young man would draw the name of a young woman in a lottery and would then keep the woman as a sexual companion for the year (The Origins of St. Valentine's Day. http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/ValentinesDay/, January 31, 2004).
It is of interest to note that the same Catholic source states:
The Catholic Church no longer officially honors St. Valentine, but the holiday has both Roman and Catholic roots.
Does Valentine's Day sound like a holy festival of love or a pagan holiday of lust?
St. Valentine's day and Cupid, Eros, Juno Februata, Pan, Prapus, the Lupercalia feast
