The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-02-13
ST. VALENTINES DAY.
The Origin of it's Observance and
Usages-Cupid's Carnival.
copyrighted, 1894. by Godfrey Williston
Christine.)

copyrighted. 1894. by Godfrey williston
Christine.)
Everybody knows that St yalen-
tines day falls on February A. but
probably very few can give any accur-
ate and intelligent account of IT'S ORR
gin, or are aware of the fact that the
good ST. Valentine, for whom it is
named, never either directly or indi-
recty bore any relation whatever to
its observances, when christianity be-
gan to shed its first luminous rays
over the hearts of Pagan Rome, one
of the chief difficulties encountered in
the conversion of those old heather
was their deep-rooted attachment to
the many festivals and customs which
they had so long observed in honor of
their many deities. The early fathers
of the church found it impossible to
Despairing at length of being able to
do so, they sought to so modify the
form of these heather observances as
TO give them a religious character,
thereby transmogrifying them into
lchristian ceremonialS held upon the
same dates
From many centuries before Christ,
the Romans had been accustomed to
hold great feasts in honor of Pan and
Juno during February, from which
month the. latter deity derived her adj
ditional names of Februata, F'ebrualis
and FebrulIa. These festivities were
known as the Lupercalia, and during
their continuance, among great
many other ceremonies, small tablets
bearing the names of young women
were placed in box and drawn out
by the young men after the manner of
a lottery. Each person drawing was
in honor bound to be the faithful at
tendant of her who had fallen to his
lot from that time until twelve months
had rolled around and brought another
Lupercalia and a new drawing, though
1t not infrequently happened that long
before that time the constant associa-
ton thus engendered had caused this
sham engagement to terminate in a
real one.
For those heather festivities of the
Lupercalia the early fathers substi-
tuted those of st. Valentines day, thus
retaining the date of the ancient fes-
| ival. 1t has been stated that it was
from the fact that st. Valentine was
renowned for his universal love and
charity that the custom of choosing
| lOve-partnerS upon his birthday and
calling them by his name took its rise,
but the iconoclasts who have long
since deprived Columbus of the honor
of having discovered America, who
have taken away WaShington's little
Ratchet and who have overthrown and
destroyed countless other long-wor-
shipped idols of our firesides and mar
ket places, have fully demonstrated
the fallacy of this idea. The only rea-
son why the christianized Lupercalia
was observed on st. Valentines day
was simply to have it fall upon sacred
loccaSion of approximate date and to
connect it with christianity through a
great saint who suffered martyrdom
in the third century, being first beaten
with clubs and then beheaded, while a
priest at Rome, where his remains now
rest in the church of st. PraXedes, and
where a gate now known as the Porta
del Popolo, was formerly called in his
honor the Porta Valentine.
The good churchmen modified the
form of the matrimonial lottery of the
lLupercalia by substituting the names
of particular saints to be drawn as
valentines instead of the names of mer
and women. From this ancient usage
is derived the custom, still occasionally
observed in some Catholic countries
of selecting, on st. Vaventines day
for the ensuing year a. patron saint
who is called a valentine. But the
lyoung men and maidens, finding little
amusement in drawing out the names
lof dead and gone saints, soon relapsed
into their old custom of drawing each
other, and even at the present time
in many Of the rural districts of Eng
land and Scotland it is customary, or
the eve of st. Valentines day. fol
the young people of both sexes tc
draw lots for a valentine AS the mer
draw from a bag containing the names
OF the maids, while the latter draw
from one containing the names of the
men, it generally happens that eacf
person has two valentines, but the
young men regard themselves much
more strongly bound to the valentine
they have drawn than to the one who
has drawn them. If, as sometime:
happens, young man and woman
should each chance to draw the othe
it is regarded as absolutely certain tina
they are destined to wed, and mus
mot under any circumstances, PERM
their attention or affection to centr
elsewhere.
The custom of exchanging amator,
addresses in poetry or prose between
lovers on st. Valentines day is a YER
old one, dating back to the old Roman
Lupercalia, when instead of a shee
Of elegant note paper, a gold pen ar,
violet ink, the gallant young citizen
of Rome indited their valentines b
means of waXed tablets and a STYLUS
t Some of the early. English poets de
) voted much attention to the compost
! ton of these love sonnets appropriat
| to st. Valentines day and owed thei
t reputation largely to such works
{ Prominent among such was Charlie.
duke of Orleans, who was take
| prisoner at the battle of Agincourt
: and Drayton, a poet Of Shakespeare
: time, whose now almost forgotte
works abound in passages of rar
5 beauty.
l But written valentines long sine
: ceased to be the fashion. The printe
2 and painted productions of tn
stationer's shops supplanted Their
l years ago, and the latter continue t
grow more and more elaborate, arts
tic and expensive as time rolls o.
An excellent description Of such
2 valentine is given by Dickens in hi
"Pickwick Papers where ne tells no,
Sam Weller, on gazing into a stationer'
[ window on St Valentines eve, behel
: a highly colOred representation of
= couple of human hearts skew
cred together with an arrow, cool
! ing before d cheerful fire, while a NAL
{ and female cannibal in modest attig,
i-tHe SeHtleHldH D9IlS Gao IN i Dlu
coat and white trowserS, and the lad
in deep red pelisse, with a parasc
of the salne-Were approaching tn
2 meal with hungry eyes up a ser3saJin
gravel path leading thereunto A IL
cidedly indicate young gentleman, i
/ a pair of wings and nothing else. :. a
depicted as experimenting the cookin.
A representation of the spire Of tf
church in Langham place appeared i
the distance, and the whole formed
valentine"
: The application of the term waller
tine" to the highly colored penny WOO
cuts of q humnrnns and iraaos. :.