Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1895-02-14
st. Valentines.


commentaries looks down upon our
busy world on the l4th of February,
how shocked he must be to see the
frivolity that marks the observance of
the day of his death For it is the
anniversary of his death, of his mar
tyrdom, our St. Valentines Day, with
its dainty little love verses and its gro
tesque carieatures What must he
think of the mischievous children who
are so eager to get to school early that
morning in order to see the teachers
face as she opens the proper little note
she will find on her desk, and gazes
upon the picture of sOur-visaged old
maid with very large head, and an
equally large ruler, who is represent
ed as tyrannizing over class of small
children with cherubic faces? The
little dears, of course they know that
their teacher is their natural enemy,
and this is their chance to tell her so.
Then, too, he must wonder why the
ugly pictures, why the delicate cards
with Cupids and pierced hearts riot
ing all over them, are called valentines.
What had he to DO with such things
as these? Absolutely nothing, it seems.
St. Valentine was one of the early
Christians, a Roman priest, who was
martyred during the Claudian perse-
cution in the third century. He had
been arrested and kept in prison IN
chains for a long while, until finally,
all efforts to make him change his
faith having failed, on the l4th of Feb
ruary, 270, he was beheaded. From
this fact alone, that it was on the l4th
of February, has bis name been con-
nected with the customs that have
come down to us.
The Romans had festival, the Lu-
percalia, which was celebrated in hon.
or of Pan and Of Juno. One OF the
ceremonies performed at the festival
was that of putting the names Of young
women in jar and letting the young
men draw them out by chance. The
Lupercalia was observed until, in the
year 400, Pope Gelasius, wishing to
abolish all pagan rites, and looking
around for an excuse to change them,
found that st. Valentine had been
martyred two hundred years before,
on the l4th of February. This was
Just what he was seeking. 1t gave him
the opportunity of making it a church
day, and calling it after the old saint.
However, the Pope's plans were not
destined to succeed very well. The
people accepted the name, but seem
to have held on to many Of their old
customs.
From this time until the seventeeth
century we leag very little of the day,
but then it reappears, with the old
Roman ideas still clinging to it. For
instance, we learn that it was the Gus
tom Of the young men and the maid
ems two centuries ago to meet on the
eve Of the l4th Of February and choose
their valentines. They did it in
Just the way it had been done centn-
ries before by the Roman youths.
Each wrote the name Of his or her
most favored lover upon a slip Of pa
per. These were put in boxes. The
men then drew the names Of the girls,
and vice versa. Thus each one drew a
valentine, and was himself drawn az a
valentine but an old writer says
"The man stuck faster TO the .valen-
tine that had fallen to him than to her
to whom he had fallen" The engage
ment in each case was supposed to last
a year; presents were exchanged be-
tween the two, and frequently what
was begun in jest ripeued into some
thing more serious.
One Of the superstitions Of st. Val
entiue's Day was that the first un-
married man young girl saw on go
ing out that morning would be her fu-
ture husband. A story is told Of one
lady who remained in her room with
the curtains drawn and her eyes tight
ly shut, resolutely refusing to come
ont until the right man came.