St. Tammany farmer., 1903-03-21

the coming of the The-Anthropos, the
founder of the church; the church
which set aside ST. Valentines day.
The origin of St. Valentines day is
churchiy. The custom of lis cele brs-
tion is heathen."
That tells the whole story. One of
the well known ceremonies of the
Lupercalia was the placing of the
names of young girls in box, on slips
of paper. After they were thoroughly
shaken together the slips were drawn
out by the young men present, and
the girls whose names were drawn
were the partners of the young men
Tor the occasion. The early priests
of Christian church stopped this prac-
tice, and required the substitution OF
the names of apostles and saints; and
the young men who drew the slips
we're expected to simulate the lives of
the saints whose names were drawn.
We cannot follow St. Valentines
day into other countries, but history
shows us that in England, about the
tenth century, the people revived the
of girls in the box. This method of
getting the girls and young men to-
gether again resulted in custom of
expecting marriages to follow the
choosing of partners; and thus it
happened in England that ST. Valen-
tine gradually began to be regarded
as the patron saint of lovers; and
this error spread to our country. 4
Another thing from heather Rome.
The Lupercalia was in honor of Feb
ruarta-Juno, and the month of Feb
ruary was called by heather priests
the lovers month. This idea spread
to other countries. And, when the
English custom of drawing lovers for
weddings on St. Valentines day be.
came known in other countries, they
adopted it. This became all the
more natural, because the choosing
of human mates in that month would
seem to the people of early days as
appropriate as the choosing of mates
by the birds, fact long well known,
especially in Italy and contiguous
countries. It became the lovers
month, and the mating month; and
the greatest church day of that
month being St. Valentines day, the
whole world entered into the error
of making St. Valentine the patron
saint of all the lovers in the world.
Young men used to wear the slips
bearing the names of their chosen
partners on their sleeves, sometimes
for weeks at a time. The sending of
cards (an enlargement of drawing
slips) began in the eighteenth century.
The making of comic valentines is
one of the horrors of American gen
ius, worse even than the yellow jour
nal. Another Americanism origin
ated in the fertile brain OF some
street urchin; probably a newsboy
whose capacity for cussedness is un-
limited, the ringing of door bells and
then running away before they are
answered.
But over all perversions of the
lovers prevail, and the valen-
tines increase in cost each year,
despite the increased facilities for
their production. In the windows
are exhibited valentines so hand
somely executed that they cost nu-
merous dollars. But, then, nothing
is too good for "tootsey wootsey" in
the good old valentine time. More
over, local artists have been kept
busy for some time with the orders
of those who have money to burn,
making hand painted valentines for
the objects of their affections.
And all of this expense and funny
business in honor of saints who nev.
er had anything to do with lovers,
mating, marrying nor giving in mar
riage. How this world does delight
in being fooled or in fooling itself.
-.....-4 -.-- SMITH D. FRY.