VALENTINE’S DAY

Hey fam. In a couple days we’ll celebrate a very traditional party here in America called “Valentine’s Day.” It’s celebrated every 14^th of February every year. In Colombia, we call it the day of “Love and Friendship,” which we celebrate every 14^th of September every year. You’re probably asking yourself, why am I telling you this? Well, I want you to know the origin of this celebration, ‘cuz to me it’s pretty old; it’s been around since 325 A.D.  I used to think that businessmen had made this party up to get people shopping, but it’s not so. Behold with what great joy we mess up. Without further ado, I want to tell you about the origin of Valentine’s Day, warning you that it is nothing pretty, and more so, it is unpleasant, especially for us Christians.
The tradition/origin of this festivity goes back to the year 325 A.D.  It was one of the most perverse and satanic celebrations in history, and was celebrated by the Roman Empire. It consisted in allowing all sorts of orgies, and we don’t have to be very smart to imagine them. The purpose of the feast was to give honor to Luperco, the god of human and agricultural fertility. The celebration used to be called Lupercalia, and it was celebrated on Feb 15. This custom prevailed for centuries, but the Roman Empire started to have many more people that were turning to Christianity, and those people proposed to eradicate this disgusting custom, but failed, for there was already too many people into it. All of this occurred in Constantine’s empire, in 325 A.D. Then, in the year, 494 A.D., pope Gelasius dubbed this celebration with Saint Valentine’s name and changed the date to Feb 14.

This name was chosen by pope Gelasius because a priest from Rome called Valentine was killed for having violated the Roman laws that prohibited soldiers from getting married. Valentine married soldiers in secret, and he had to pay with his life for his disobedience. According to history, there were two martyrs, other than Valentine, associated with the date February 15. However, only Valentine’s name survived. All we know about the other two is that one of them was the bishop of England, and the other was from Africa.

Now all that’s left to say is: We ought not to live in the past, but rather to learn from our past mistakes. To believe that Christ died is history, but to believe that he died and rose to life for me is salvation.

Happy day of Love and Friendship!

With love,

Maria Fanny Agudelo

                                01/25/2017