Valentine’s Day is more than candy hearts and romance—and if you’ve never been taught its true background, this teaching will open your eyes.
You’ll learn where Valentine’s Day came from and why history and Scripture must be examined together when evaluating modern celebrations. We don’t tell you what to think—we give you the tools to think critically and honestly.
So join us as we peel back the layers of history to reveal the God Honest Truth about Valentine’s Day.
#ValentinesDay #HistoryOfValentinesDay #ValentinesDayHistory #GodHonestTruth
Transcript
Teaching Introduction
You’ve seen the hearts, the roses, and the romance, but have you ever stopped to examine and question where this whole celebration of Valentine’s Day actually came from? You were taught to celebrate Valentine’s Day, but you were never taught to question it. Well, in this video, in this teaching, we’re going to be examining the origins of Valentine’s Day and actually going back even further than that to look at some ancient history as well. You don’t want to miss a single point of this if you want to be educated about what Valentine’s Day is actually all about. So stay tuned.
Video Start
All right. So this teaching is going to be all about Valentine’s Day. We’re going to go over some history. We’re going to go over some unknown facts or probably unknown to you. It’s going to be some very interesting stuff that we’re going to go over in our pursuit of learning where this day comes from and the evolution and changes over time. So, definitely make sure to stay tuned. That’s coming up in just a minute.
But before we get to all that, I do want to let you know in case you haven’t done this before, there’s a lot more notes that we’ve got for you than what’s going to be presented here in this teaching. So, if you want even more information than what you see here, you can go to our website, click on the post for this episode, and that’ll take you to our article post, which has the on demand video that you see here on your screen. It’ll also have the draw slides that you uh can go through at your own pace. It’ll have the notes that we took for this particular subject and episode and it also have the transcript once that gets available if that is of any benefit to you. And that’s all right there on godhonesttruth.com. And the easiest way to do it is go down below in the description and we provided for you a convenient link that’s all you got to do is click on and it takes you directly to that article post. And that link should be down there. Whether you’re watching on a video platform or an audio podcasting platform, it should still be down there all the same.
Hint of History
So on Valentine’s Day, it starts I don’t necessarily agree with this starting point, but a lot of people date it all the way back to the Roman times. And you’ll see why I disagree with it here in just as we go through the teaching. But let’s go ahead and look at a little bit of history just to get you caught up on at least what some people think and to get you educated on some things that happened in the past.
Now, if you’re not familiar with Rome, Rome is a very, very interesting bit of history. One particular part of that is the very first founding of Rome itself. The legend or the myth goes that there were two twin boys that were born and they were named Remus and Romulus. And if you’re a Trekkie like I am, that automatically starts throwing flags in your mind. That’s where those planets came from in the Star Trek universe. But anyways, these two boys were born and they were actually considered to be a threat to a king at the time named King Amulius. That’s correctly pronounced. But he saw them as a threat to his throne. So he sought to have them killed and in doing so they were left to die on the Tiber River.
Now as the story goes they did not die on the Tiber River as infants or as young children but rather they were saved by a she-wolf called Lupa. Now something that is very very interesting. Remember that name Lupa because it’s going to come into play as we go throughout this history part. But the word lupa is actually a vulgar slur if you might call it. According to Etymonline, the vulgar word for harlot was scortum, literally skin or hide. Another term for harlot or prostitute was lupa which also means she-wolf. It’s almost like sometimes maybe the whole mythos was the actual animal that took care of them. But in reality, maybe they were actually cared for and raised by a hooker. I’m not entirely sure how that goes. Don’t really care. It’s Rome. It doesn’t really matter in my life anyways. It’s just kind of interesting to think about.
Anyways, the story, the mythos goes that these twin boys were saved by a she-wolf called Lupa. And they were cared for and saved by this particular she-wolf. And the way or part of the story as goes that this she-wolf cared for them and took care of them in a cave called Lupercal. Now remember that as we go through this particular section as well. Eventually these twins Romulus and Remus were adopted and taken into the home of a farmer named Faustulus. And they were then raised by humans at that point then on until they got into adulthood.
And when they got into adulthood, these twins Romulus and Remus decided to found a city. And you can kind of see where this is going. But when they decided to found the city, they were split over some of the details that they were going over, trying to decide on, and whatnot. and they could not come to a consensus to an agreement on these details. So, as a lot of Romans did, if you get into an argument, one surefire time-tested way to win the argument is just to kill your opponent. Then you’ve got no one to argue with. So, Romulus killed Remus, killed his twin brother, Remus. And this is all according to the legend, the mythos here. So Romulus won the argument apparently and he founded the city and then named the city Rome after him Romulus. That’s where the name Rome comes from from the name Romulus. Romulus won the argument. He got to found the city and all the details and to decide on the name. So that is the founding of Rome or the legend and mythos that goes behind the founding of Rome. Don’t take that as fact. That’s just what has been going around for several thousand years.
Anyways, moving on into history, there is a festival called Lupercalia and that used to be celebrated on February 15th on the Roman calendar every year. It was originally known as Februa. Sound familiar? February. Anyways, Lupercalia was known as Februa. And at this particular festival, goats and dogs were sacrificed by the priests of the Lupercus. And they were known as Luperci, literally brothers of the wolf. See how this is all fitting together? This Lupercus were the dogs remember and goat were sacrificed by the Luperci which means brothers of the wolves. See how it’s all playing back to the origin story? And these sacrifices took place at the entrance of Lupercal.
Now, if you remember from what we just went over, Lupercal is the actual cave according to legend where the she-wolf cared for Romulus and Remus. Now during this festival of Lupercalia on the eve of Lupercalia actually young Roman women would write their names on paper and then they place them into a clay pot as it were. And what happened is that young Roman men, usually noble young Roman men would draw from this urn wherever they these women placed their names and they would select a name and they would be paired with that young woman throughout the festival. Some sources I saw said that they were actually paired for the entire year until the next Lupercalia, but I’m not sure how accurate that is. So these men were paired up with the names they drew out and they stayed that paired up throughout the rest of the festival.
Part of the ritual in Lupercalia is that these men would go around and they would slap or hit the women with these strips of hide that came from the dogs and the goats that were sacrificed during the festival. By doing so, they believe that it would actually increase the fertility in the women and actually also make the birthing process easier and smoother as well. And however, as time went on and Christianity started taking hold and spreading in 494, Pope Gelasius ended up banning Lupercalia. And in my opinion, for good cause. Lupercalia was just all about carnality and lust and pagan sacrifices, etc., etc. It it was a good thing that it got banned. However, remember that date 494 because it’s all going to come into play here as we get going throughout this particular teaching.
Now, one of the reasons you can kind of understand why they would want their women to be fertile and have a good child birth because think about it. Before modern medicine back then, the infant death rate was high. And one source I remember reading about or learning about says that back during these Roman times, each woman had to have about an average of eight children just to maintain the population numbers. That’s not the increased population numbers. That’s just to maintain the population numbers. Eight children for every woman. Infant mortality was high back during that time. People would die early in their life just due to sickness or basic hygiene that we take for granted nowadays, etc., etc. So, you can kind of understand why they would want their women to be fertile and to have a good child birth. It does not justify this feast of Lupercalia, but it kind of does make it a little bit understandable, at least in my opinion. Definitely not taking up for it. So, don’t get me wrong there.
We also get a sense of this festival of Lupercalia from the writings of Plutarch. And let me read you an excerpt from Plutarch. And this is Plutarch on the Lupercalia incident. Quote, “The feast of the Lupercalia was being celebrated. And at this time many of the magistrates and many young men of noble families run through the city naked and in their jesting and merrymaking strike those whom they meet with shaggy thongs. And many women of high rank purposely stand in their way and hold out their hands to be struck like children at school. They believe that the effect will be to give an easy delivery to those who are pregnant and to help the barren become pregnant. End quote. So you kind of got some verification and coinciding with an actual writer here that goes along with the encyclopedia and dictionary entries that we looked at earlier.
And this wasn’t the only information we get doesn’t come just from the early times like the first 2nd century from Plutarch. It also comes from later on in history from writers like Shakespeare. Of course, this is all fictional when he wrote his plays and whatnot, but it is referencing the actual festival that occurred way way before him, some probably 1500 2000 years before him. And you can I’m not going to read it for you, but it’s in his play Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare. And you can find references to it either A on your screen here as I’ve selected for you, B in the notes that we took that you can go find on our website or C you can look it up in that actual play Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare in act one, scene one, act one, scene two and act three, scene two. So the myth or the information was known even up until the time of Shakespeare and this still incorporated into the works that he wrote the plays and whatnot. So that’s Lupercalia and that was on February 15th, not 14th. So we’ve got we’re kind of close to that whole Valentine’s thing, but we’re not quite there.
‘Saint’ Valentine
So you might be thinking, okay, how does all this equate and go along with Valentine? Well, let’s go ahead and do our next step in the history and look at quote unquote Saint Valentine. Back in the day, Valentine was seems to be a somewhat popular name. And as far as we’re talking about, there was actually two different Valentines. We don’t know exactly who it was that eventually got the name Valentine on February 14th, but there was Valentine of Rome and Valentine of Terni. Emperor Claudius II during his reign there were all kinds of wars and skirmishes going on as Romans were want to do. And of course during war you lose men and you need to replace them. You need to build your army. And if a man got married, he did not have to do service for so long. And this kind of hampered the war efforts. So there was a kind of a banning of getting married and falling in love and etc etc because it was tough to get men to join the army for Emperor Claudius II. Like I said Claudius banned marriages and engagements. But this did not stop the Valentine that we’re talking about now. Valentine disobeyed. I’m not, like I said, I don’t know if it was Valentine of Rome or Valentine of Terni, but Valentine disobeyed and continued marrying couples even in secret. That’s where a lot of the legends of the quote unquote saint Valentine uh kind of originate. But when he was found out, Valentine was beaten and then eventually killed on February 14th about 270 of the common era. And that is why February 14th is known as Valentine’s Day because of this guy Valentine was martyred on February 14th. Both of these Valentines that we mentioned before, Valentine of Rome and Valentine of Terni were both of them were actually executed on February 14th, but they were executed in two different years by the same emperor, Emperor Claudius II.
Now, that was in 270 CE. It took all the way up until 496 CE of the common era before Pope Gelasius actually established February 14th as St. Valentine’s Day. Even up until this point, I have found Valentine was executed in 270. At this point, the feast of Lupercalia was still going on. At that point, I still have not found any evidence to kind of put Valentine and the martyr of Valentine together with the feast of Lupercalia. And in 494, Lupercalia was banned by Pope Gelasius. And then two years later, took a whole another two years, then Pope Gelasius initiated or inaugurated February 14th as St. Valentine’s Day. And that’s where we get the commemoration of Valentine, the martyrdom of Valentine.
Then we read from Britannica.com, quote, although the Roman Catholic Church continues to recognize St. Valentine as a saint of the church, he was removed from the general Roman calendar in 1969 because of the lack of reliable information about him. End quote. Now, does that sound kind of familiar? was just about a month ago, maybe a little bit more, we also examined another quote unquote saint of the Catholic Church, St. Nicholas. Correct. And there was so much unknown about him. Most of what we knew about St. Nicholas is all myth and legend and probably made up. Well, the same thing goes with this quote unquote St. Valentine. We know very very little about him except that he was martyred on February 14th by a pagan Roman emperor and that’s about it. Most of the other stuff is just legend. We can’t verify if it’s true because we have no evidence to say yeah that actually happened or no that didn’t happen. And thankfully the Catholic Church recognized their error some almost 1700 years later and finally removed this guy from the general Roman calendar. Still think of him as a saint which is a whole other barrel of worms but yeah progress is progress credit where credit is due. Right.
So that is the guy Valentine how he got murdered when he got murdered and martyred and how this February 14th became known as Valentine’s Day or Saint Valentine’s Day.
The Valentine’s Day We Know
Now still it’s not the way we know it today because Lupercalia this whole festival of lust and carnality and etc etc old pagan stuff that was outlawed and done away with in 494. Two years later then Saint quote unquote St. Valentine was given a day on the calendar and that was February 14th. But it was just a remembrance, a commemoration. There was no feast for Valentine. There was no big partying. There was no reserving a table at the local restaurant. Nothing like that.
So now let’s start to look at how we got the Valentine’s Day that we know of in today’s day and age from catholic.org, or Catholic online. Quote, “The romantic nature of Valentine’s Day may have derived during the Middle Ages when it was believed that birds paired couples in midFebruary.” In 496 CE, Pope Gelasius marked February 14th as a celebration in honor of Valentine’s martyrdom. End quote. And from catholic education.org, or quote, “During the Middle Age, a common belief in England and France was that birds began to pair on February 14th, halfway through the second month of the year. For this reason, the day was dedicated to lovers and prompted the sending of letters, gifts, or other signs of affection.” End quote.
So, now we’re up into the Middle Ages and specifically like the 14th century, but we’ll get more into the more exact date here in just a moment. Remember it was Lupercalia was outlawed and banned in 494 CE. It was all the way up until the 1300s. Almost a thousand years had passed before this February 14th was associated in any way with love or romance or etc etc. And it actually began not because of a pagan festival, but because of observations from people in Europe thinking that birds paired up and mated and stuff like that starting on February 14th. That is the source for why we associate Valentine’s Day with love and romance, etc., etc.
from catholic.com. Quote, “The reason the feast day has come to be associated with romance has nothing to do with the two saints, neither of whom had a clear connection to lovers or courtship. The association has to do with a belief dating at least from the time of Chaucer that birds pair up on February 14th. This belief about biology became associated with the feast of the day and eventually the thought of courtship and romance came to dominate. End quote. So again more evidence more reasons to or even more points to understand as to where this whole association of love and romance came from. And it came from the middle medieval ages specifically about the 14th century about 1300s and with birds not from some kind of carnal lustful Roman pagan festival.
From history.com quote it was a medieval poet who first established the holidays romantic tradition. Valentine’s Day only became associated with love in the late middle ages thanks to the English poet Geoffrey Chaucer. Bruce Forbes, a professor of religious studies at Morningside College in Iowa, says, “The bottom line for me is until Chaucer, we have no evidence of people doing something special and romantic on February 14th.” End quote. So here we have again even more and more evidence that February 14th up until the time of Chaucer during the Middle Ages. It wasn’t associated with well pretty much anything. It was just a date on the calendar to remember the martyrdom of a guy who died 1,200 years before that. Then in the time of Chaucer in the 1300s in the 14th century people started associating February 14th with the pairing up of birds etc etc and then Valentine’s Day February 14th became associated with romance and love etc etc.
Now, here is a poem from Geoffrey Chaucer titled The Parliament of Fowls if you want to go and look that up. And it was written approximately about 1381, 1382, somewhere around there. But I’ll read you just this first paragraph from the excerpt that I have here on your screen. And again, you can go and look at this for yourself, look it up, or you can go look at the notes. This first paragraph goes as such. Quote, “For this was on St. Valentine’s Day when every foul comes there his mate to take of every species that men know I say and then so huge a crowd did they make end quote he also wrote other poems that included this whole love and romance thing on Valentine’s Day as well this comes from his work the complaint of Mars and Venus by Geoffrey Chaucer written somewhere around 1385 so about 3 years later and And it says, quote, that that a time cometh which shall end your sorrow, for the glad night is worth a heavy morrow. Thus sang a bird, St. Valentine, what time thy natal day was in its early prime. End quote. Yeah, you’re not going to hire me to read poetry anytime soon. But yeah, that comes from Geoffrey Chaucer back in the late 14th century. And that is really the beginning of when Valentine’s Day started becoming associated with love and romance, etc., etc.
Modern Observances
It’s still not what we know of today, but that’s where it really began. What we know of today, that’s where where that whole connection really began.
Some modern observances that eventually developed after the time of Chaucer, after it began to be associated with love and romance and etc, etc. Of course, when you think about Valentine’s Day, how can you not think about Valentine cards? Well, coming from britannica.com, quote, “The paper Valentine with inscribed sentiment dates from the 16th century and the first printed Valentine may have been the frontispiece of a Valentine writer, a book of verses that offered assistance to the inarticulate and was issued as early as 1669.” End quote. from thoughtco.com. Quote, “It seems that the writing of special notes and letters for Valentine’s Day gained widespread popularity in the 1700s.” End quote. So, after the time of Chaucer and the beginning of the association of Valentine’s Day with love and romance, it took a little while for the whole Valentine’s card thing to come into play, but when it did, it really did.
coming from time.com. Quote, “The earliest English, French, and American Valentines were little more than a few lines of verse handwritten on a sheet of paper, but as of the 18th century, their makers began to embellish them with pictures as well. The first commercial Valentines appeared in England at the very end of the late 18th century.” End quote. So, as time goes on and uh things develop and so that’s where cards really started to come into play that we really know of nowadays. That’s really a big staple of Valentine’s Day as we know it. We’ll get into some other stuff here in just a moment, but that is working on cards.
And finally, one more thing to talk about cards from history.com. Quote, “During the Victorian era, those who didn’t want the attention of certain suitors would anonymously send vinegar Valentine. These cards, also called penny dreadfuls, were the antithesis of customary Valentine, comically insulting and rejecting unwanted admirers.” End quote. And I’ve looked up some of these. You can yourself. just go do a simple being search or whatnot. But you look up some of these vinegar Valentines, they get fairly hilarious. They’re absolutely mean-spirited, I think, but they’re hilarious at the same time, too. It’s uh I until I started doing this research about Valentine’s Day and history and stuff like that, I never knew about vinegar Valentines. And it’s uh one of those very very interesting tidbits of history that really makes history very interesting.
So moving on, we’ve looked at cards and there’s a bunch of other stuff that goes along with Valentine’s Day that we know of today. And one of those major things that goes along with Valentine’s Day today is the consumption of chocolate. How can we forget chocolate? coming from history.com. Quote, “By the 1840s, the notion of Valentine’s Day as a holiday to celebrate romantic love had taken over most of the English-speaking world. Into this love crazed fray, came Richard Cadbury, Scion of a British chocolate manufacturing family, who was responsible for sales at a crucial point in his company’s history. Richard recognized a great marketing opportunity for the new chocolates and started selling them in beautifully decorated boxes that he himself designed. End quote.
The reason we have chocolate associated with Valentine’s Day today is because of marketing and because of the Cadbury family and the Cadbury company obviously. And once he got the chocolates introduced and associated with Valentine’s Day, as they say, the rest is history. From lacier.com, quote, “The association between chocolate and Valentine’s Day can be traced back to the 19th century thanks to Richard Cadbury. The Cadbury family revolutionized the chocolate making process, producing smooth, indulgent chocolates. Richard Cadbury designed the first heart-shaped box filled with chocolates specifically for Valentine’s Day, forever linking the two. End quote. And from history.com, quote, “The Valentine’s Day tradition of giving a box of candy was started in the 19th century by Richard Cadbury, a scion of a British chocolate manufacturing family. With a new technique recently established at the company to create more varieties of chocolate, Cadbury pounced on the opportunity to sell the chocolates as part of the beloved holiday. End quote.
Now remember, this is in the 19th century, the 1800s. It was about 500 years after uh Valentine’s Day had become associated with love and romance. That’s when chocolate came on the scene and it’s been an integral part of Valentine’s Day ever since. That’s not the only integral part of Valentine’s Day. We have cards, we have chocolates, but we also have unfortunately diamonds. And this is a fairly new association or new integration into the Valentine’s Day festivities. coming from noblemetalrefining.com. Quote, “Although lovers have exchanged gifts on Valentine’s Day down through the ages, the custom of giving jewelry didn’t really take hold until the 20th century.” End quote. From Nocommunications.com. Quote, “In 1947, Frances Gerety, one of the only female writers on staff at NW Ayer advertising agency, coined the phrase, a diamond is forever.” The line became the slogan De Beers continues to use to this day. Since Gerety coined this phrase, sales skyrocketed. From 1939 to 1979, De Beers diamond sales in the United States increased from $23 million to $2.1 billion.” End quote.
So once the marketing took hold and diamonds got associated with Valentine’s Day, it stuck. And just like chocolate, diamonds are associated with Valentine’s. Not for religious reasons, not for historical reasons, but for marketing reasons. There’s really no connection between chocolate and Valentine’s and diamonds and Valentine’s other than the marketing concept, but it took hold. It stuck and it’s a part of the celebrations and that we know of today as Valentine’s Day. So that’s some of the various customs and things that we know of that we have come to familiarize and associate with Valentine’s Day today.
So now let’s go. There’s a lot more that we could go into, but I don’t want to make this too too long. I’m trying to cut it down and keep it reasonable tonight.
Valentine Symbols
But let’s move on and look at some various Valentine symbols because I’m a nerd and I found this kind of interesting and hopefully it is of benefit to you and you also find this interesting as well.
But first, let’s start out with hearts. And this is going to be extremely interesting, I think. But looking at history.com, quote, “Silphium’s seed pod bore a striking resemblance to the modern Valentine’s heart, leading many to speculate that the herb’s association with love and sex may have been what first helped popularize the symbol. The ancient city of Cyrene, which grew rich from the silphium trade, even put the heart shape on its money.” End quote. And if you’re watching on video or you’re looking at the slides at this point, you can see a coin from Cyrene and you can see that heart shape or what we associate as the heart shape now on that coin. Back then they would have associated that with the silphium pod, not necessarily love and romance and Valentine’s because none of that existed at that point.
From Wikipedia.org quote in the 5th to 6th century B.C.E. The heart shape was used in the Roman world to represent the seeds of the plant silphium, a plant possibly used as a contraceptive and an aphrodisiac. Silver coins from Cyrene of the 5th to 6th century BC bear a similar design, sometimes accompanied by a silphium plant and is understood to represent its seed or fruit. End quote. Now I don’t know if you actually understood this or knew this or not but the common heart shape that we associate with love and the heart and etc etc isn’t the actual shape of the human heart. Oddly enough even though we say that’s the center of our emotions and love and etc etc that’s not what an human heart actually looks like.
We look at time.com. Quote, “The shape is even closer to the look of a bird or reptile heart given that the study of anatomy before the 14th century was based on the dissection of animals.” End quote. So before at a certain point in history, the dissection and study of the human body and dead corpses was forbidden. It was banned. So in order for doctors and scientists, etc., etc., order to learn about anatomy and biology, they would have to dissect and study animals. And they would dissect and study reptiles and birds, avians, etc., etc. And when they did so, they saw the heart of these animals. And that heart from the reptiles and from the birds, they actually look like the Valentine heart that we know of today. If you look on the screen here on the left, we have an image or a diagram example of a reptilian heart and then on the right hand side you have a diagram or a picture of a human heart. These are two different things and we know about it now. They didn’t know about it back then. And once that shape took hold, it became tradition. It became ingrained in people’s minds, in people’s cultures and beliefs, etc., etc. And as we all know, tradition is something that is a bear to try and get rid of. Obviously, in this case, it hasn’t been gotten rid of because we still think of that Valentine heart as the shape of the heart, unfortunately, when it’s actually not. That’s neither here nor there, you know. It’s just a interesting thing to understand and know about.
coming from wikipedia.org. Quote, “The familiar symbol of the heart representing love developed in the 15th century and became popular in Europe during the 16th. Before the 14th century, the heart shape was not associated with the meaning of the heart metaphor. Since the 19th century, the symbol has often been used on Valentine’s Day cards, candy boxes, and similar popular cultural artifacts as a symbol of romantic love.” End quote. But for a long long time that Valentine heart shape was not associated with love or even the human heart that came about about the 15th century took hold and then about the 19th century started getting on to the Valentine’s Day scene and once again as they say the rest is history.
Another symbol commonly associated with Valentine’s Day is the symbol of Cupid. Now, this is where you’ve really got to pay attention and be careful. Coming from readersdigest.com, quote, “The Valentine Cupid, you can easily call to mind, is an interpretation of Eros, the Greek god of love. The Romans reinterpreted many Greek myths, and Eros is no exception. Once he was adopted by Roman culture, he was renamed Cupid, which stems from the word for desire.” End quote. Now, Eros is the Greek word where we get our modern word erotic. Oddly enough, there’s a lot of our words derived from Greek and Roman times, but especially Greek. But Eros eventually became known as Cupid once the Romans came on the scene and adopted and brought into their religion the Greek religion and ideas, stuff like that. That’s also something that we studied about a month ago. This whole concept of syncretism or interpretatio Graeca, interpretatio Romana and interpretatio Christiana. It’s adopting and syncretizing other religious beliefs with the one that you currently hold or are a part of. And with the Romans did it to a scale that’s almost indescribable. One of the things they did was taking this Greek Eros and adopting it, syncretizing it, and became the Roman Cupid. And that’s what we know of today.
From time.com, quote, “The Romans reinterpreted myths and concepts pertaining to the Greek Eros for Cupid. In classical mythology, Cupid is the god of desire, erotic love, attraction, and affection. His Greek counterpart is Eros.” End quote. But it’s really not a counterpart. It’s just an adoption, a copy, a takeover, I guess you could say. All these false pagan gods, they don’t exist. So, it’s really neither here nor there. Anyways, looking at jstor.org quote it was the English literary giant again Chaucer and a circle of contemporaries who building on the courtly love tradition were the original mythmakers of Valentine’s Day as a holiday focused on love and fertility. Cupid’s association with the day was present from the start. At the time of Chaucer’s death in 1400, the transformation of Valentine into an auxiliary or parallel to Cupid as sponsor of lovers was well underway. End quote.
And finally, from history.com, quote, “Because of his association with love, 19th century Victorians credited with popularizing Valentine’s Day and giving the holiday its romantic spin, began depicting this cherubic version of Cupid on Valentine’s Day cards in a trend that has persisted until this day.” End quote. So once again, once this whole thing of this false pagan god named Cupid got into tradition, it was hard to get rid of and it stuck with us and still associated with Valentine’s Day today. So even though chocolate and diamonds have nothing to do with love and romance, it’s it’s in my opinion, it’s a gray area. It’s neutral. It’s whatever. Same thing with cards and the heart shape. But the symbol of Cupid on the other hand, that’s a different story entirely. At least in my opinion, that is a false pagan god and should not have anything to do with anything that we do. Now, granted, I will give you this. It’s only one aspect of the Valentine’s Day celebration and as far as I can tell, it’s pretty much the only pagan aspect of Valentine’s Day as we know it today. So, take that for what you will, but definitely if you’re going to celebrate Valentine’s, definitely cut out the whole false pagan fairy tale of Cupid. Just do away with it altogether. But again, that’s just my opinion, my interpretation. You have your own family and you do you. So, you make up your own mind. It’s you that’s going to give account for your decisions and your family, not me. You again do you. I’m just providing the information for you.
Summary
In summary, let’s recap everything that we’ve learned tonight about Valentine’s Day. When we look at various holidays and stuff, we need to kind of think about three different criteria when we’re thinking about it. It doesn’t matter if it’s one we think comes from scripture or one that comes from culture or tradition or one that we’re even making up and is brand spanking new. Number one, we need to determine whether or not it comes from scripture, whether or not it contradicts scripture and whether or not it comes from a pagan source.
So, let’s start out with a very, very easy one that you should be able to get in your sleep. Let’s look at Passover. Passover, does it come from scripture? Yes. Does it contradict scripture? No. Is does it come from a pagan source? No. So, Passover is good. Another way we know that is because Yahweh himself actually commands it. Number two, this is talking about the American Independence Day, July 4th. Let’s examine that real quick. Does Independence Day come from scripture? No, it doesn’t. Does it contradict scripture? No, it doesn’t contradict scripture even though the Jehovah’s Witnesses may disagree with that particular statement. Oh well, Independence Day does not contradict scripture. And number three, does it come from pagan sources? No. So, Independence Day is not required to celebrate, but it’s not, at least in my opinion and interpretation, is not prohibited either.
Look at Christmas. This should be fairly easy as well if you’ve been watching the episodes that we’ve been producing. Number one, does Christmas come from scripture? No, it does not. Does it contradict scripture? Yeah, Christmas contradicts scripture. Does it come from pagan sources? Yes, many times over. Yes, in many different aspects. Yes. So, Christmas is definitely no bueno. No good. a pagan source thing that we should try our best not believe in at the very least and if we can not celebrate it if at all possible same thing with Easter it doesn’t come from scripture it contradicts scripture and it comes from pagan sources now with the thing with Easter I will give you that originally at the very very very beginning u it was a remembrance of the resurrection resurrection Okay, it wasn’t Easter at that time, but then over the centuries, various pagan things come into the mix with the Easter celebrations and caused the whole Easter thing to become pagan through and through.
Let’s look at Hanukkah. Hanukkah does not come from scripture. It does not contradict scripture and it does not come from a pagan source. So, just like Independence Day, it’s not commanded, but it’s also not prohibited. Now after we’ve done all these exercises, let’s now take a look at Valentine’s Day and using the information that we went through during this particular episode, let’s think about it. Does Valentine’s Day come from scripture? No, it does not. Does Valentine’s Day contradict scripture? Not that we can find. No. And does Valentine’s Day come from pagan sources? No, not in our opinion. And we’ll go over that information again here in just a moment just to kind of back up that point as well. So Valentine’s Day, like with Hanukkah and Independence Day, is one of those gray areas. It’s not commanded and it’s not prohibited. So again, it’s up to you. You do you for your family.
Now, some of the points that we went over during this particular teaching. Number one, Rome was supposedly founded by someone named Romulus, who was reportedly cared for by a she-wolf named Lupa. Again, that could have been a hooker or it could have been an actual wolf, but it’s all myth. Anyways, the festival of Lupercalia was celebrated annually on February 15th. Lupercalia was eventually banned by Pope Gelasius in 494 of the common era. There were multiple people named Valentine. In 496 of the common era, Pope Gelasius established February 14th as St. Valentine’s Day as a remembrance and a commemoration of the martyrdom of Valentine, not as a day for love and romance. It would be another nearly thousand years before Valentine’s Day became associated with love and romance. Jeffrey Chaucer was the one of the very first ones in 1381 to first associate Valentine’s Day with romance and love etc etc. Valentine cards date from the 16th century but really became popular and took off in the 18th century and especially with the industrial revolution. Chocolate on Valentine’s Day started only in the 19th century and that was thanks to the Cadbury Company and the Cadbury family, specifically Richard Cadbury. Diamonds became a Valentine’s tradition only in the middle of the 20th century. Valent or diamonds associated with Valentine’s is less than 100 years old. The heart shape we know today came from the dissection of reptile hearts is more associated with the shape of the reptile heart or the shape of a bird’s heart, not the shape of a human heart. Cupid was the pagan god formerly known by the Greek name Eros. Valentine’s Day did not replace Lupercalia. And this is just my interpretation and the way I see it. And here is why.
Is there syncretism like with uh Valentine’s and Lupercalia like there is with Christmas and the pagan festival of Saturnalia and the winter solstice and Bacchanalia etc etc. Well, think about it like this. Let’s go over the historical facts. Lupercalia was a festival of lust, carnality, pagan sacrifices, and fertility. Does that sound anything like Valentine’s Day? in today’s day and age or in a couple hundred years back. No, it really doesn’t. In 494, Lupercalia was banned by Pope Gelasius. And two years later in 496, the commemoration of St. Valentine and his martyrdom was established on February 14th as where Lupercalia was on February 15th. But even two years after Lupercalia’s ban when the commemoration of St. Valentine was established, there was still no feast. There was no big celebration. There was no association with love and romance. It was just a remembrance of a martyrdom. Then in the 14th century some thousand years or so after the establishment of Valentine’s Day or the commemoration of the martyrdom of Valentine that is when Valentine’s Day first started becoming associated with love and romance. Then in 1969 Valentine was removed from the general calendar due to lack of reliable information.
So I think all this association or this legend of love and romance with Valentine and all the different stories that you hear was actually backdated. It’s anachronistic to the actual Valentine that lived back during the first and second centuries or 3rd century. Sorry. I don’t think it’s actually happened. It’s just legend. This whole love and romance association with Valentine’s Day didn’t happen until the 14th century. That’s why I personally do not think that Valentine’s Day is another case of syncretism like we have with Easter or Christmas or Sunday Sabbath etc etc. This is definitely one in my opinion that stands out on its own as being non-syncretistic and this is a point that we differ with other messianic ministries other messianic believers and that’s okay. We can disagree on things like this. This is not a salvation issue. So if you believe it’s a that Valentine’s Day comes from the source of Lupercalia, that’s your interpretation. But personally, I do not see it that way given the facts at hand and the history. So take it for what it’s worth. Once again, like I’ve said before, you do you. Else you’re going to be responsible for your decisions. And if you’re a husband or a father, you’re going to be responsible for the decisions that you make for your family as well. And that is just the God honest truth.
So, thank you for joining us for this teaching on Valentine’s Day. Hopefully, you got some good information about it. You learned something that you didn’t know before. We hope that was beneficial for you. And if you did find something beneficial, make sure you go down below in the comments and let us know what it was that stuck out in your mind, what it was that really helped you. Also, be sure to go down below in the comments and let us know if your opinion on Valentine’s Day has changed any and what specifically it was that kind of made a light bulb come on in your mind. After you get done with the comments down there, make sure you go up above that, hit that subscribe button, and ring the bell so that you’re notified every time that we go live or upload a new on demand video. Hit that like button if you liked it. Hit that down vote button if you didn’t like it, but let us know in the comments why you didn’t like it so that we can improve our future videos. Also, make sure to hit that share button and share this video around with someone that you may know.
And once again before we leave, I just want to remind everyone that if you want the notes that can contain a lot more information about this subject, you can go to our website at godhonesttruth.com. Click on the post or the article for this particular episode. There you’ll find the on demand video, the draw slides, the notes, and the transcript if that is so of a benefit to you. And the easiest way to do that is go down below in the description and click on that convenient link that we placed down there and that should be there whether you’re watching on a video platform or an audio podcasting platform.
Thank you for joining us for another production from God Honest Truth Ministries. We really do appreciate your time and hope that we have been of service to you. If you have any feedback then please reach out to us by writing to team at godhonesttruth.com and make sure to visit our website for more information on our social media links, audio bibles, teaching resources and so much more.
