Love Potion

I hope you all have a very Happy Valentine's Day!

There are lots of people who claim that Valentine's Day is "too commercial," and seem resentful of having to give their loved ones tokens of affection "just because of a Hallmark holiday." Bah humbug! Christmas is too commercial, too, but nobody walks around complaining about having to get presents.

The love you take is equal to the love you make, baby!

Much like Christmas and other Christian holidays, Valentine's Day has at least some of it's roots in a pagan festival. This time of year, it was the Lupercalia festival. (Side note: William Shakespeare's play Julius Caeser begins during Lupercalia.)

"While some believe that Valentine's Day is celebrated in the middle of February to commemorate the anniversary of Valentine's death or burial -- which probably occurred around 270 A.D -- others claim that the Christian church may have decided to celebrate Valentine's feast day in the middle of February in an effort to Christianize' celebrations of the pagan Lupercalia festival. In ancient Rome, February was the official beginning of spring and was considered a time for purification. Houses were ritually cleansed by sweeping them out and then sprinkling salt and a type of wheat called spelt throughout their interiors. Lupercalia, which began at the ides of February, February 15, was a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, as well as to the Roman founders Romulus and Remus.

To begin the festival, members of the Luperci, an order of Roman priests, would gather at the sacred cave where the infants Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, were believed to have been cared for by a she-wolf or lupa. The priests could then sacrifice a goat, for fertility, and a dog, for purification.

The boys then sliced the goat's hide into strips, dipped them in the sacrificial blood and took to the streets, gently slapping both women and fields of crops with the goathide strips. Far from being fearful, Roman women welcomed being touched with the hides because it was believed the strips would make them more fertile in the coming year. Later in the day, according to legend, all the young women in the city would place their names in a big urn. The city's bachelors would then each choose a name out of the urn and become paired for the year with his chosen woman. These matches often ended in marriage. Pope Gelasius declared February 14 St. Valentine's Day around 498 A.D. The Roman 'lottery' system for romantic pairing was deemed un-Christian and outlawed. Later, during the Middle Ages, it was commonly believed in France and England that February 14 was the beginning of birds' mating season, which added to the idea that the middle of February -- Valentine's Day -- should be a day for romance..."

Source: History Channel

Today I saw on the news that there were two red-tailed hawks hanging out in front of the webcam on top of the Schraft's (popular candy-maker, for you non-US folks) building in Boston, and appeared to be ready to mate. When two hawks choose each other as a mate, it's for life. Say it with me now: Awwwwww.