Thursday, February 14, 2008
Yep, it's Valentine's Day, or as I like to call it Single's Awareness Day.
I was curious about the history of Valentine's Day so I looked it up. Here's a brief synopsis of how it got started.
Valentine's Day has its origins in the Roman festival Lupercalia, observed on February 15th. Lupercalia celebrated the coming of spring (in the Roman calendar February was observed later in the year than it is today).
Celebration of Lupercalia spread with the Roman Empire. The first Valentine-like cards may have been exchanged in Roman-conquered France.
As Christianity began to take hold in Europe, the Roman church attempted to clean up this pagan day by merging its feast with Saint Valentine's Day (observed February 14). This day honored two legendary Christian martyrs.
The legend of these martyrs may have stemmed from real people or from a single person. One of these martyrs, Valentine, is believed to have been a Roman priest and physician who was killed in the 3rd century during the persecutions of the Emperor Claudius II Gothicus (the Groth).
From Valentine's Day's association with Lupercalia comes the holiday's association with love and romance. The day's enthusiasts co-opted the Roman god,Cupid, as a patron of Valentine's Day. Cupid is also known as Amor and as Eros in Greek mythology. The ancient Greeks believed Eros was the force of love -- a force they believed was behind all creation.
Cupid is often depicted with wings and carrying a bow and quiver of gold tipped arrows. The son of Aphrodite, Cupid is said to be mischievous and able to inspire love with a shot of one of his arrows.
More book news!!
You can read an excerp from the Host on Stephenie Meyer's website!! You can read it here:
I really can't wait for this book to come out. It'll be interesting to read something from Stephenie Meyer thats not from the Twilight series.
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