Little Known Valentines Day Facts for Your Enjoyment and Amusement
When we think of Valentines Day, most of us have images of hearts, arrows, and small baby cupids running around in a diaper shooting people to make them fall in love in our minds. Oddly enough, Valentines Day really had absolutely nothing to do with love and romance until Geoffrey Chaucer wrote a poem for King Richard and his bride. Before that, little known Valentines Day facts state that the day originally commemorated the day Saint Valentine was beheaded for aiding Christian prisoners to escape from Roman inquisitors.
Obscure Valentines Day Facts
February 14th was originally a Roman festival day set aside for the ceremony of Lupercalia; an ancient fertility rite which was performed each year to help ensure fertile women, fertile crops, and was thought to protect fields from the wolves. A goat was killed and the hide torn into strips which were then dipped in the blood of the goat. The strips of flesh were then taken and used to spread the blood across the edges of the fields, and thrashed against the legs of the women in the town.
Some other little known Valentines Day facts include the fact that the Catholic Church actually recognizes eleven different saints named Valentine; and Valentines Day is actually in commemoration of three of those men. The first was a priest who performed secret Christian marriages in defiance of the Roman Emperor; the second was Saint Valentine who helped the Christians escape from the Roman inquisitors; and the third is mentioned very little except in reference to his name.
Still more little known Valentines Day facts include the fact that the very first "valentine" was said to have been written by the Duke of Orleans. Imprisoned, he is said to have penned a love note in rhyme to his beloved, which was then secreted away to her under the cover of darkness. This was at the beginning of the fifteenth century. It was at this same time that the day began to be associated with the day the love birds in England began their search for a mate, which is why love birds have come to be associated with the holiday.
There are so many different obscure Valentines Day facts available, these are but just the tip of the iceberg. It is also estimated that more than 24 million marriages occur each year on this day, and that more than $100 billion dollars worth of chocolates are sold for Valentines Day. Whatever the history of the holiday may be, the lesser known Valentines Day facts that you can find certainly make in an interesting one.
