Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1882-02-23
st. Valentines Day.

st. Valentines Day.
The custom Of honoring st. Valen-
tines day extends back in the centuries,
and its origin can only be speculative
ly fixed. Some suppose that it sprang
from the ancient Roman festival of the
Lupercalia, which was celebrated on
February. 10. This was at first shep-
herds invocation to the God of Fertil-
ity. In the course of time the festival
became general among all classes, and
college of priests especially devoted to
the service of the god was established.
After the establishment of the Chris
tian Church an attempt was made to
abolish the heather feast, which had
eventually become mere expression of
gallantry. This effort not succeeding
the date Was changed to the birthday of
st. Valentine-February IA. Valentine
was a Christian bishop and suffered
death by the order of the Emperor
Claudius about the year 270. Soon after
his execution he was canonized, and
made patron of the day now celebrated
by the sending of valentines, because of
the loving charity of his character.
Others hold that the festival is as old
as the human race, being an expression
of the vernal impulse common to all
English people that on this day, Febru
ry IA, the birds selected their mates.
They appear to have imagined that an
influence was inherent in the day which
rendered in some degree binding the lot
or chance by which any youth or maid
was led to Ok attention on any person
of the opposite sex. The supposition
was common that the first unmarried
person whom one met in walking abroad
on st. Valentine's S morning was desti-
ned wife or husband. Thus the poet
Gay puts the following in the mouth of
the rural dame:
LAST Valentine, the day when birds
were kind,
Their paramOurs with mutual chirplngs
find,
l early rose, just at the break of day,
Before the sun had chased the stars
away;
A field l went, among the morning dew,
To milk my kline, (for so should house
wives dO,)-
Thee first spied-and the first swain
we see,
In spite of Fortune, shall our true love
be-"
According to Mission, learned trav-
eler in the early part Of the last centu-
ry, the young folks of England and Scot
land observed an ancient custom on the
eve of St. Valentines day. He says:
"An equal number of maids and bach
elors got together; each writes their
true or some feigned name upon separ-
ate billets. which they roll up and draw
by way of lots, the maids taking the
young mems billsts, and the men the
maids, so that each of the young men
lights upon girl that he calls his val
entine, and each Of the girls upon a
young man whom she calls hers. By
this means each has two valentines, but
the man sticks faster to the valentine
to whom he has fallen. Fortune having
thus divided the company into so many
couples, the valentine gives balls and
treats to their mistressss, wear their
billets several days upon their bosoms
or sleeves, and this little sport often
erds in love- st. Valentines day is al
luded to by Shakespeare, Chaucer, and
other writers and poets. Dayton, po-
ct cotemporaneous with Shakespeare,
thus refers to his valentine:
Muse, bid the morn awake,
Sad winter now declines,
Each bird doth choose mate.
This days st. Valentines,
For that good bishops sake,
Get up and let US see
What beauty it shall be
That fortune us assigns"