Valentine’s Day And Its History
Valentine’s day is an occasion to share love to your loved one by giving cards, gifts, especially chocolate. This day occurs on 14th february each year. However, many people do not know why we celebrate Valentine’s day, why we call this day Valentine and abstract characters such as Cupid - who they are. So we’d like to bring you some information about Love and Romance day.
St. Valentine
St. Valentine is known as a person who died more than thousands years ago.
Many stories told that Valentine has died for attempting to help the young lovers get married and at that time, marriage was banned for men. Due to the thought of unfair fixation from Emperor Claudius II, Valentine went against this rule and was beheaded. At the prison, Valentine fell in love with his jailor’s daughter, before his death, he left a lived-ever-after letter “ From Your Valentine”. People started tributing Valentine on 14th February - the day St. Valentine passed away.
However, in another legend, The modern St. Valentine's Day celebrations are said to have been derived from both ancient Christian and Roman tradition. As per one legend, the holiday has originated from the ancient Roman festival of Lupercalis/Lupercalia, a fertility celebration that used to be observed annually on February 15. But the rise of Christianity in Europe saw many pagan holidays being renamed for and dedicated to the early Christian martyrs. Lupercalia was no exception. In 496 AD, Pope Gelasius turned Lupercalia into a Christian feast day and set its observance a day earlier, on February 14. He proclaimed February 14 to be the feast day in honor of Saint Valentine, a Roman martyr who lived in the 3rd century. It is this St. Valentine whom the modern Valentine's Day honors.
Cupid
Cupid is a very famous Valentine’s day symbol and everybody knows that boy armed with bow and arrows, and piercing hearts
He is known as a mischievous, winged child armed with bow and arrows. The arrows signify desires and emotions of love, and Cupid aims those arrows at Gods and Humans, causing them to fall deeply in love. Cupid has always played a role in the celebrations of love and lovers. In ancient Greece he was known as Eros, the young son of Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty. To the Romans, he was Cupid, and his mother was Venus.
There is a very interesting story about Cupid and His mortal Bride Psyche in Roman mythology. Venus was jealous of the beauty of Psyche, and ordered Cupid to punish the mortal. But instead, Cupid fell deeply in love with her. He took her as his wife, but as a mortal she was forbidden to look at him.
Psyche was happy until her sisters persuaded her to look at Cupid. As soon as Psyche looked at Cupid, Cupid punished her by leaving her. Their lovely castle and gardens vanished too. Psyche found herself alone in an open field with no signs of other beings or Cupid. As she wandered trying to find her love, she came upon the temple of Venus. Wishing to destroy her, the goddess of love gave Psyche a series of tasks, each harder and more dangerous than the last.
For her last task Psyche was given a little box and told to take it to the underworld. She was told to get some of the beauty of Proserpine, the wife of Pluto, and put it in the box. During her trip she was given tips on
avoiding the dangers of the realm of the dead. She was also warned not to open the box. But Temptation overcame Psyche and she opened the box. But instead of finding beauty, she found deadly slumber.
Cupid found her lifeless on the ground. He gathered the deadly sleep from her body and put it back in the box. Cupid forgave her, as did Venus. The gods, moved by Psyche's love for Cupid made her a goddess.
Today, Cupid and his arrows have become the most popular of love signs, and love is most frequently depicted by two hearts pierced by an arrow, Cupid's arrow.
Why we choose Chocolate is Valentine’s gift
In the past, Valentine’s gifts were just roses and other items. It wasn’t until the mid-1800s that Valentine’s Day chocolate entered the picture. The British chocolate industry, focused on making better-tasting drinking chocolate, enhanced the cocoa butter-extraction process. These extraction improvements quickly led to an overabundance of cocoa butter. The surplus butter was used to produce chocolates meant for eating, not drinking. Soon after, these bite-sized chocolates were marketed to the public in attractive (often heart-shaped) reusable decorative boxes for Valentine’s Day. And voilà, the tradition of giving chocolate on Valentine’s Day was born.
