Valentines Day Roman Style
Valentine's Day Roman Style Is a time to celebrate romance and love and kissy face fealty. But the origins of this festival of candy and cupids are actually dark, bloody and a bit muddled.
A drawing depicts the death of St. Valentine one of them, anyway. The executed two men by that name on Feb. 14 of different years in the 3rd century A.D. Though no one has pinpointed the exact origin of the holiday, one good place to start is ancient Rome where men hit on women by, well, hitting them.
Those Wild And Crazy Romans From Feb. 13 to 15, the Romans celebrated the feast of Lupercalia. The men sacrificed a goat and a dog, then whipped women with the hides of the animals they had just slain. The Roman romantics "were drunk. They were naked," . Young women would actually line up for the men to hit them, They believed this would make them fertile. The brutal fete included a matchmaking lottery, in which young men drew the names of women from a jar. The couple would then be, um, coupled up for the duration of the festival — or longer, if the match was right.  So the celebration of Valentine’s Day goes on, in varied ways. Many will break the bank buying jewellery and flowers for their beloveds. Others will celebrate in a SAD (that's Single Awareness Day) way, dining alone and binging on self-gifted chocolates. A few may even be spending this day the same way the early Romans did. But let's not go there (or perhaps we should xx
