Who invented Valentine's Day? Festive interior for Valentine's Day. Legends of Valentine
Instructions
In Western Europe, Valentine's Day began to be widely celebrated in the 13th century. IN North America this tradition migrated to 1777. On this day it is customary to give flowers and gifts to your loved ones. Gifts traditionally include jewelry, sweets, perfume, or just a romantic evening for two. In the West, many men choose this day to propose marriage to their girls.
In Russia, this holiday appeared only at the end of the 20th century after the collapse of the USSR. Now it is celebrated on no less scale than in Europe and America. Even in schools, 14 they install special mailboxes where anyone can drop their valentine with a declaration of love, sometimes even anonymously. Many couples in Russia choose Valentine's Day to register their marriage. It is believed that a marriage entered into on this day will be long and happy. The excitement that can be observed in stores on the eve of this holiday can only be compared with the New Year and March 8th.
The history of the most romantic holiday - Valentine's Day, by definition, should be very romantic. This is true! More precisely, not history, but stories, for there are several of them, and which of them is true and which is just fiction is not known. In any case, they are very beautiful, romantic and very sad.
The history of the holiday is connected with the name of the Catholic saint beautiful name Valentine, who lived in the 3rd century and in whose honor the holiday was named.
According to the first legend, Valentin was a military doctor and priest. He served under the then Emperor Claudius II. The emperor was very domineering, cruel, and such a feeling as “love” was alien to him. And one day, Claudius, thinking about how to increase the efficiency and power of his large army, thought that a legionnaire who did not have a wife or children, and was not burdened with a family, would fight better than one who had a family. And illuminated by this “brilliant” idea, the emperor issued a decree that forbade legionnaires to marry and start a family. Valentin knew about this and was very sympathetic to the soldiers and their lovers. Therefore, he decided that he would secretly marry couples, despite the emperor’s ban. Soon they found out about this and reported to Claudius. The angry tyrant ordered the execution of the priest. While awaiting execution, Valentin was thrown into prison, where he met Julia, the beautiful daughter of the prison warden. The young people fell in love with each other, but the emperor's sentence did not allow them to be together. Before his execution, Valentin sent Julia a heart-shaped note declaring his love. This is how the first Valentine card in history appeared, which became a symbol of the holiday. The execution of Valens took place on February 14, 269. This is the first story of the origin of Valentine's Day.
The second legend says that Valentine secretly converted to Christianity and converted his subjects and servants to the new faith. As in the first legend, he married couples in love. But one day they reported him to the emperor, and when he married another couple, all three were taken into custody and thrown into prison. Valentin, thanks to his high status in society, could avoid execution. The lovers were doomed. The freed Valentine wanted to somehow console them and wrote them a letter that was shaped like a heart. The letter was supposed to be delivered by a blind girl, but, to the surprise of everyone, the priest himself came to the dungeon. He persuaded the guards to let the young couple go and take him in return. He traded his life for the lives of two of his subjects. Before going to the scaffold, Valentin gave that same blind girl his last letter. Taking this letter, the girl began to see clearly. This is another story of the origin of the holiday on February 14th.
Initially, the celebration of the memory of St. Valentine was established as a veneration of his martyrdom, without any connection with the patronage of lovers. At the dawn of Christianity, three people bearing the name Valentin died as martyrs for their faith. All that is known about the first of them is that he died in Carthage along with a group of fellow believers. The second Valentine was the bishop of Interamna (now the city of Terni, Italy), he was executed during the persecution of Christians and buried along the Via Flaminia in the vicinity of Rome. The third martyr, Presbyter Valentinus, was beheaded between 268 and 270 and buried along the Via Flaminia. The relics of Prester Valentine rest partly in Rome, partly in Dublin, and the relics of the bishop are in the city of Terni.
During the reform of the Roman Catholic calendar of saints in 1969, the celebration of Valentine as a general church saint was abolished on the grounds that there was no information about this martyr, except for the name and information about beheading by the sword. In the Catholic liturgical calendar, February 14 celebrates the memory of Saints Equal-to-the-Apostles Cyril and Methodius.
IN Orthodox Church both martyrs of Valentine have their own days of remembrance. Valentine the Roman, a presbyter, is venerated on July 19, and the Hieromartyr Valentine, Bishop of Interamna, on August 12.
The history of the emergence of the image of St. Valentine as the patron saint of lovers dates back to the Middle Ages and their romantic literature, and not to the circumstances of the lives of real martyrs who died at the dawn of Christianity.
In Moscow in 2012 on this day at skating rinks and parks. In the metro, congratulations were heard for the lovers. In addition to box-office films, the cinema program showed the concert film “Three Tenors”, which captured the performance in Rome of famous opera singers Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras.
In most Moscow restaurants, the menu featured dishes “for two,” new cocktails with romantic names, and the program included performances by various performers.
In 2012, users of one of the world's most popular microblogging services, Twitter, Valentine's Day, brought two opposing trends dedicated to the holiday to the main world topics of the resource.
Some Twitter users who celebrate Valentine's Day actively published posts on the service with the phrase Happy Valentine's Day (" Have a good day Valentina"), congratulating his subscribers on the holiday. Thanks to this, the phrase has been trending on Twitter since Tuesday morning.
Another part of the users, who do not share the desire to celebrate this holiday, published messages in 2012 in which they wrote that today was only Tuesday. Users who were skeptical about the holiday managed to bring the phrase “Today is Tuesday” into trends.
On February 14, 2012, the most popular query in the Russian search engine Yandex was “Valentine’s Day” - users.
Before February 14, according to Yandex, the number of requests for flower delivery, “heart-shaped cakes” and romantic recipes. At the same time, despite the general increase in interest in the topic of love shown on February 13, “I hate Valentine’s Day” was among the most popular queries.
In Russia, an analogue of Valentine's Day has become, timed to coincide with the day of remembrance of Saints Peter and Fevronia. This holiday has been celebrated on July 8th since 2008. Orthodox saints Peter and Fevronia of Murom have been considered patrons of family and marriage since ancient times.
The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources
Valentine's Day is celebrated annually on February 14 in most countries of the world: for more than one and a half thousand years, millions of people have declared their love for each other on this day. Sputnik tells the most interesting stories the origin of Valentine's Day.
Ancient Roman Lupercalia
One version of the origin of Valentine's Day says that it was transformed from the festival of Lupercalia, dedicated to fertility and named after the patron of flocks, the god Faun (also nicknamed Luperc). It was celebrated every year on February 15th.
According to tradition, men on this day sacrificed animals, made unique whips from their skins, stripped naked and ran through the city, hitting every woman they met along the way. Women willingly exposed themselves to blows: it was believed that a blow with a whip on this day would give fertility. The ritual was extremely widespread in Rome: there is evidence that even members of noble families participated in it.
Later it became so popular that it survived many pagan traditions that disappeared with the advent of Christianity. It is worth noting that many historians deny the connection between the Roman “festival” and the later Christian celebration and consider it nothing more than a guess.
Golden legend about the patron saint of all lovers
The most romantic story about Saint Valentine is associated with the prohibition of the powerful Roman Emperor Claudius II from marrying: he believed that men who were not burdened with a family would fight with greater zeal on the battlefield.
Saint Valentine was a priest and, according to some sources, a doctor. Out of pity for the unhappy lovers, he secretly married them (and also reconciled those who had quarreled and helped those who were not eloquent to write love messages).
When the emperor found out about his activities, the priest was put in prison and sentenced to death. There Valentin met the beautiful daughter of a prison guard, who fell in love with him. Some legends contain information that, due to the vow of celibacy, the priest was unable to respond to her feelings, but on the eve of the execution (February 13) he wrote a love letter to the girl, signing “Your Valentine.”
Another legend about Saint Valentine
Another version says that Valentine was a noble Roman patrician and secret Christian who converted his servants to the new faith. One day he performed a wedding ceremony for the lovers, but all three were detained by guards.
Being a member of the upper class, Valentin could have avoided execution, but chose to give his life for the newlyweds. He wrote letters to his fellow believers in the form of red hearts, symbolizing Christian love. Before his execution, Valentin gave the last letter, sanctified by faith and kindness, to a blind girl, who regained her sight and became a beauty. This could be where it starts modern tradition give valentines.
By the way, Valentine was canonized, but in the second half of the twentieth century, the celebration of his memory as a general church saint was stopped, and, by transforming the calendar of saints, the Roman Catholic Church removed his name from there, without finding any exact information about the martyr.
History of the Valentine card
The creation of the very first Valentine is also attributed to the Duke of Orleans, who wrote love letters from a London dungeon to his own wife.
They gained popularity already in the 18th century, especially in England: there they exchanged postcards from multicolored paper, signed in colorful ink.
Valentina? Love is in the air and people are confessing their feelings. To do this, you don’t even need to utter words, you can say everything with an eloquent look, and you will undoubtedly be understood. Romance, flowers, gifts, heart-shaped sweets and glowing loving eyes... Do you know where and when Valentine's Day came to us?
history of the holiday
This holiday has existed for a very long time - more than 1500 years. So, on February 14, Valentine's Day began to be celebrated in Europe somewhere in the 13th century. America joined the celebrations in 1777. The countries of the former Soviet Union discovered Valentine's Day only in the early 90s.
So, whose holiday is this and why is it called that?
This story begins in the year 269 in the Roman Empire. Then the state was ruled by the stern Emperor Claudius II. And the main goal of the Empire was to conquer lands. The sovereign military leader was faced with the problem of a shortage of soldiers in the army for military campaigns. And Claudius II found an explanation for this - marriages. The Emperor came to the conclusion that the legionnaires, who had wives and children waiting at home, were less interested in the victories of their Motherland. Why should they think about conquests when they need to take care of feeding their families? And Claudius II found what he thought was a wonderful way out: he issued a decree prohibiting marriages. In this way he tried to maintain the soldier's morale.
However, the ban on starting a family could not stop men from falling in love. And, fortunately for the legionnaires, there was a person in the empire who supported them. It was a Christian priest from the city of Terni - Valentin. Despite the strict prohibition of the emperor, he secretly held wedding ceremonies of legionnaires with their lovers in his church. Probably, Valentin was a real romantic, since he not only united people in marriage, but also assisted the lovers in every possible way: he helped to compose tender messages and gave flowers on behalf of the legionnaires to the objects of their passion.
Of course, everything came out and became known to the Emperor. And since in the Roman Empire the law was above all else, the activities of the priest were sharply suppressed. Valentin was put behind bars. And soon the emperor signed a decree on the execution of the priest.
Valentin's last days, which he spent in prison, are shrouded in an aura of romance. They say that the daughter of the chief of the guard was in love with him. However, Valentin, who gave an answer to her feelings, could not. IN last night before hanging on February 13, he sent her a letter in which he told her about his feelings. The girl read the message only after her lover was executed.
Saint Valentine
Valentine's Day is named after him. Of course, there is no evidence that everything was exactly as described above. After all, no material evidence of this has survived. But it is obvious that the young Christian priest died in the name of love. And on his short life he was given so much of this feeling: love for beautiful woman, to God, to the people he helped. It was wonderful person with a huge soul, striving to do good. It is not surprising that Valentine's Day is named after him.
Later, the Catholic Church considered Valentine a Christian martyr who died for the faith, and recognized him as a saint. And in 496, Pope Gelasius I declared that February 14 was Valentine's Day.
However, with the 1969 liturgical reform, St. Valentine was removed from the Catholic liturgical church calendar. They did the same with some other saints, about whose lives there was no reliable information. However, even before that time the church did not particularly approve of the celebration of this day.
Celebrations of love
Valentine's Day is a holiday that has existed for more than 16 centuries. However, already from the 18th century and much earlier, a wide variety of national celebrations of love have been known.
There is a version that the first was the Roman festival of eroticism Lupercalia. It was held in honor of the goddess Februata, who was considered a symbol of “feverish” love. The purpose of this celebration was to find your other half. Therefore, after its end, many new marriages were created.
The day before the Lupercalia holiday, which was held on February 15, the triumph of the Roman goddess of motherhood, marriage and women, Juno, was celebrated. On this day everything unmarried girls they had to write it and put it in a large urn. And the men - pull out the letter. It was believed that every man had to court the beauty whose ardent and passionate message he received.
IN Ancient Greece The holiday was called Panurgy. It was a festival held in honor of the deity Pan, who was considered the patron of herds, fields and fertility. Pan was depicted as a little merry fellow, playing the pipe and pursuing beautiful nymphs with his love.
All of the above are pagan contributions to Valentine's Day. It is impossible to determine whose holiday served as the basis. Most likely pagan traditions different nations are reflected in modern celebrations.
Valentine's card
At the end of the 17th century, an English court chronicler wrote that Valentine's Day is a holiday during which lovers can exchange passionate notes, give each other all kinds of gifts, such as rings, candies, gloves, cakes, etc. But it was important condition: all souvenirs are in the shape of a heart. Whether this was actually the case is unknown, but, most likely, this is where the tradition of sending special messages - Valentines - came from on such a day.
Today this word means Love letters in the form of hearts. You can't sign a Valentine's card. The recipient himself must guess who it is from.
On Valentine's Day, people want to show their feelings and tenderness to their significant other. They give roses, symbolizing love, send cute cards, propose. This is a celebration of love all over the world. But each country has its own Valentine's Day traditions.
and Italy
On February 14, both the French and Italians traditionally give flowers and gifts. The difference lies, perhaps, in the choice of the latter.
In France the best gifts On Valentine's Day, jewelry is considered. IN as a last resort Jewelry will also work. The French were the first to come up with original and popular today all over the world congratulations on Valentine's Day - rhymed quatrains. France is the country of love. And its residents live up to this name. February 14 is an abundance of flowers, gifts, Pink colour and declarations of love.
Italian holiday is a sweet day. It is traditional to give your loved ones a sweet treat. Therefore, cakes, sweets, chocolate, yoghurts and other goodies are used.
Love and Germany
What is Valentine's Day in Germany? You will be surprised. But February 14th for the Germans is a holiday for the mentally ill.
On this day, services are held throughout the country where people can pray for the health of mentally ill loved ones, as well as for the repose of Valentine’s soul. Orderlies decorate the wards and corridors of psychiatric hospitals with scarlet ribbons. Therefore, if you see a beautifully decorated building on this day, you should know that this is a “psychiatric hospital.”
But in Lately German youth strive to imitate the rest of the world. And even if unofficially, it still celebrates the holiday of love. In Germany, a pig is added to the traditional European symbols of celebration. All kinds of figurines in the shape of this animal are used, chocolate candies, Stuffed Toys and much more.
Celebrations in the USA and Canada
Valentine's Day traditions in America are largely similar to those in Europe. But still, the main gift to loved ones on this day is red roses. Statistics showed that in the United States on February 14, 20,000 roses are sold per minute. And more than a million of these beautiful flowers are bought every day!
Children also rejoice on holidays - the script of all school productions and plays. The kids dress up as angels and deliver valentines addressed to both classmates and teachers. By the way, in the USA there are a lot of weddings on this day. The famous city of Las Vegas, located in Nevada, is especially popular.
In Canada, on February 14, a girl can propose to her beloved man. And if he decides to refuse, he will face sanctions: from a fine to imprisonment! This does not apply to those representatives of the stronger sex who have already found their soul mate. But if a man is free and decides to refuse the lady who is in love with him, he will be dragged into prison.
Feast of Love in Britain
True English gentlemen give roses to their ladies. And certainly scarlet. And women who have not yet found their lover prefer to engage in fortune telling. It is believed that if on the morning of February 14 you stand near the window and look at the empty street, the first passerby who appears on the horizon will look like your future husband. If the girl manages to call him, he might even become one.
The English are famous for their quirks. They congratulate not only their significant other, but also their pets. Horses and dogs are especially loved. On February 14, you can buy food in the shape of hearts in pet stores to please your pets.
Love Day in Japan
This holiday in Japan is somewhat similar to our day on February 23rd. Japanese men on this day they get a lot more gifts than women. Girls present their lovers with wallets, razors and the obligatory Honmei chocolate. Such sweet gifts appeared thanks to the largest confectionery factory with the same name. It is believed that Honmei chocolate can only be given to the most beloved man. So this is a kind of recognition.
In Japan, a competition is held annually on February 14th. Young people rise to a special podium and shout words of love to their girlfriends as much as they can. Of course, a valuable prize awaits the winner.
Love traditions of Denmark and Holland
On this day, events are held throughout Denmark. holiday parties, dedicated to Saint Valentine and all lovers. Numerous concerts are held game shows, Exhibitions. The whole country is celebrating. The Danes have interesting tradition. On Valentine's Day, men send a dried flower with which their beloved is associated. This is how girls learn a lot of new things about themselves and about the tastes and fantasies of their chosen ones.
If you really want to get married, you need to go to Holland. There is a tradition there that on February 14, if a girl proposes, she cannot be refused. Of course, it is unlikely to tie a man in marriage against his will. But even if the offer is refused, there is an opportunity to ask the chosen one for a silk dress. Moreover, of any brand and for any price. No man can refuse this. The only condition is that the dress must be red. It is believed that only such an outfit can comfort an outcast woman. So, in any case, the Dutch will not lose money.
Friends Day
In Estonia and Finland it is Friendship Day. Of course, lovers celebrate it too. But the peculiarity of the holiday is that true friends also receive postcards and gifts. This is done so that almost everyone can join the holiday, and not just happy lovers.
One way or another, on this day, as throughout the world, people send valentines, cute little things, gifts, soft toys, sweets and other gifts made in the shape of hearts. Flowers are less popular here, as practical Finns and Estonians prefer material expressions of their feelings of love and friendship.
Ban on love
Iran and Saudi Arabia are the only countries in the world where Valentine's Day is officially banned. The traditions of the holiday are considered harmful and pernicious here, confusing young minds. IN Saudi Arabia there is even a Commission for the Prevention of Sin and the Introduction of Virtue. It was she who issued a decree banning the celebration of Valentine's Day. The commission concluded that "this Western holiday glorifies man's original sin."
Therefore, all shops and supermarkets in the country on February 14 have no right to sell flowers, valentines, plush toys and all sorts of other holiday attributes. And anyone who decides to celebrate this celebration will face a huge fine.
Valentine's Day in Russia
As mentioned above, in Russia Valentine's Day has been celebrated not so long ago. However, many people have already enjoyed the holiday. Especially those who are in love. Russia has already had its own holiday traditions. This day is perceived as a triumph of joy and love. In all corners of the country, lovers send valentines, present gifts and flowers, and arrange romantic evenings by candlelight and dates under the moon.
By the way, Rus' also has its own Valentine's Day. Orthodox holiday It's called Valentine's Day. Russians celebrate it. This holiday is a tribute to the legendary love of Fevronia and Pavel. And in 2008 it was declared official of fidelity and love.
