Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Be My Valentine

Good morning on the day after the infamous extraction. My mouth is very sore today, but no swelling or severe pain.  Thank goodness!!! Looks like a bright and sunny day out there, but looks can be deceiving.  A storm is on its way.  This time we're not going to get off so lucky.  We're already under a warning, and they are forecasting anywhere's from 8 to 15 inches.  I most likely will take a sick day tomorrow.  If it was an 8:30 to 4:30 day I might try it, but it's an 11 to 7 day which means I will be trying to make it home in almost a foot of snow. 

Well, Saturday is Valentine's Day, a day of love and romance, which is celebrated with the giving of candy, flowers, and other gifts, but it actually originated in the 5th century BC in Rome as a tribute to St. Valentine, a Catholic bishop.

Before Valentine's Day was established, the Romans practiced a pagan celebration in mid-February to commemorate the young men's rite of passage to the Roman god,Lupercus. Additionally, during Lupercus, but in honor of the goddess Juno Februata, the names of young women were put into an urn.   The celebration itself featured a lottery in which each young man would draw the name of a maiden from the urn.  Then, the  boys and girls who were matched would be considered partners for the year which, in those days, began in March. In later times, Pope Gelasius, hoping to do away with the pagan festival,  ordered a slight change in this lottery.  Instead of the names of the maidens, the urn would contain the names of saints, and both men and women were allowed to draw from the box...after which they were to emulate the ways of the saint during the coming year.

And, instead of honoring the pagan god Lupercus, the church looked for a suitable saint of love to take his place and found him in Valentine, a saint who had been beheaded by Claudius in 270 AD.  The story goes that the emperor, feeling that married men made poor soldiers, banned marriage in his empire, but Valentine was secretly marrying the young men who came to him.  Eventually, he was caught an imprisoned, falling in love with the blind daughter of his jailer.  It is said that his faith and his love for her healed her of her blindness befor his death. And, before he was taken to his death, he signed a message for her, "From your Valentine."  This phrase has been used ever since.


This year Valentine's Day falls on the day of the New Moon, making it a day to perform powerful rituals and spells.  Utilize this day to:

Heal heartache from a past love.
Restore passion into your life.
Reconnect with a long, lost lover.
Bring a new love into your life.
Bring a new start in your relationship.

7 comments:

  1. understand exactly the deceiving looks of weather.. It is sunny here yet a cold 23 outdoors... still I am glad to see the sun shining... Stay safe and warm with your storm.. hope it is not too bad... It did not do too much here when it went through... just a light dusting of snow

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  2. Glad you got through the extraction. Anyone going to a dentist is a hero in my book....
    I'd heard before that this holiday came from a pagan one. Very interesting how things change through time. Stay home and warm my friend.

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  3. Feb 14th's new moon marks the Chinese Lunar New Year too -- the Year of the Tiger is upon us! Rowr!

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  4. Thanks for this, Mary! I had no idea. Celebrating Valentine is a rather new phenomenon here in Finland. :)

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  5. Glad it's just sore, which can sort of be expected.

    Luck with the ding-dang-storm!!!

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  6. So glad that you are not having and issues with your extraction. Good for you taking the day off tomorrow, have fun and enjoy it. We had rain all day today until about four and then the sun came out. It was beautiful, soggy but beautiful. Maybe the storm will blow right on over you.

    (((HUGS)))

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  7. I'm happy your trip to the dentist went well!

    I like the idea of putting names in a hat - you can't get much worse results that way than some of the guys I've dated - lol!

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