*smooches you all*

[strange_complex]

Aww, it is Valentine's Day! Le cute. :)

I hope that you have all been checking out the messages on 021407. Some of you have reason to, y'know! ;)

Edit: now with bonus discussion of the 'relationship' between Valentine's Day and the Lupercalia in the comments!

Comments

[rich-r.livejournal.com]

Hmm certainly from reading those it does seem like they were quite unsure as to the origins of the festival, or even what people were meant to do during it.

I guess it's just coincidence with the modern Valentine's Day - maybe a tenuous revival of a romantic notion of what people did at that time in the past.

Or maybe it's just that people were feeling a bit randy mid-February as the weather starts to get better...

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

I do think it's interesting that a lot of people obviously want to find an ancient festival that can be identified as the 'origin' of Valentine's Day - just as they do for Christmas, Easter and lots of others. Of course a lot of it is about a modern desire to reject Christian traditions by finding older festivals which they can simply be said to have 'stolen'. But I think there's also an insight into the power of tradition generally there - the idea that the further back we can trace a festival, the more meaningful or significant it is.

And of course, what's most interesting of all from my point of view is that the Romans were up to exactly the same think when they went round tracing the origins of their own festivals to the Greek, the Etruscans or the very foundation of their own city.

[rich-r.livejournal.com]

It certainly seems that way.

Personally I'm just miserable and don't celebrate any special occasions. I'm not Christian, so generally find Easter and Christmas quite annoying in that all the shops are shut, and there's nothing worth watching on the telly!

Though I do make the effort to go to Whitby twice a year, but that's probably more of an excuse to meet up with people and dress up all Gothy :)