At the beginning of Richard Curtis' 2003 romantic comedy film 'Love Actually', we open on jump cuts of people meeting and greeting each other at the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. These people include friends, families, boyfriends, girlfriends, you name it, all embracing and welcoming each other. Hugh Grant's character does a beautiful voiceover as it all unfolds on the screen: "Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion's starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don't see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often it's not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it's always there- fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know, none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge; they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I've got a sneaky feeling you'll find that love actually is all around."
Love is, by definition, a great feeling of affection for someone. It doesn't necessarily have to be romantically driven; it can be expressed in a multitude of ways towards all sorts of people. What's nice about love is that you can have it for pretty much anyone, and it doesn't matter who that person is to you on a technical level. Certainly, Grant's speech makes that very clear, and really, isn't it a blessing that we can always have affection for one another and have it always around us?
Of course, we recognise that Valentine's Day in particular has romantic connotations attached to it. However, interestingly, historians trace the roots of the annual intimate holiday to two big events in time that aren't completely romantic love-focused. Some historians have suggested that Valentine's Day has its origins in the ancient Roman festival of Lupercalia, held between February 13th and 15th, tracing back to, supposedly, the 6th century BC. It was a festival that celebrated the emergence of Spring, the inclusion of fertility rites, and the time when women and men got together through a lottery. The idea that the festival could go as far back as the 6th century BC has to do with the Roman legend of Romulus and Remus. According to legend, Romulus and Remus were twins who were sentenced to death by drowning in the Tiber River by their uncle, King Amulius, after their mother failed to commit to her vow of celibacy. Being pitied by a servant, they were put in a basket on the river, being carried by the river god to safety to the branches of a fig tree, where they eventually were found and cared for by a she-wolf by Palatine Hill, where Rome was later founded. Soon they were adopted by a shepherd and his wife, and later they killed their uncle Amuluis as well as found the cave den that the she-wolf had looked after them in, calling it Lupercal. Romulus and Remus would go on to fight to the death for the claim of their recently founded city, the former of which survived, subsequently naming the city Rome. The Lupercalia festival was carried out in two locations: firstly, in the actual cave itself, and secondly, in the Roman public meeting place called Comitium, where a lot of sacrifices took place. It was then transferred to the city of ancient Rome, where the fertility rites happened. This would also be when the tradition of men randomly drawing women's names from a jar happened, after which they would couple up for the rest of the festivities until the following year's celebrations. Such a tradition resulted in many falling in love and getting married.
Pope Gelasius in the 5th century AD decided to ban Lupercalia and mark the period as a time to remember the martyrdom of St. Valentine on February 14th. And who exactly was St. Valentine? Well, there are actually more than one, including the patron saint of 'lovers, epileptics, and beekeepers'. The other, arguably more widely known universally, is the Roman priest and physician called Valentine who was condemned to death by Emperor Claudius II Gothicus in the third century. Legend has it that Claudius II Gothicus was having difficulty recruiting soldiers for his army and was convinced that this was because Roman men were opposed to joining due to being strongly attached to their wives and families. The emperor, therefore, banned all marriages and engagements in Rome to solve this issue. Valentine, seeing this as unjustifiable, chose to defy the emperor, marrying young lovers in secret. When he was caught, the emperor had him condemned to death, having Valentine dragged before the Prefect of Rome, beaten to death with clubs, and having his head cut off. This sentencing was supposedly carried out on February 14th, around the year 270. He was buried on the Via Flaminia, with a basilica being built over his grave by Pope Julius I. Legend also tells us that Valentine signed a letter with "from your Valentine" to his jailer's daughter, whom he had befriended and apparently healed from blindness. Since then, Valentine has been recognised as a saint, and the annual holiday remains associated with his name to this day.
The emergence of formal messages and valentines began in the 1500s, and by the late 1700s, that was when commercially printed cards were first sold. Valentine's Day is celebrated globally every year; in the Philippines, it is a very popular day for weddings and is actually the most common day for wedding anniversaries! Many Valentine's cards consist of Cupid, the ancient Roman god of love, who, according to legend, appears often as a winged infant with a bow and arrows, striking people with wounds that lead to love and passion. Cupid came to be associated with Valentine's Day through his picture being commercially printed on Valentine's cards back in the mid-nineteenth century.
And that's all for now, everybody! We at Langton Greenhouse and Garden Centre wish you all the greatest happiness during this special holiday.
Websites consulted
Aakanksha Gaur and others, 'Valentine's Day: Social Custom', Britannica, December 14, 2021, <https://www.britannica.com/topic/Valentines-Day> [Accessed 3 February 2022].
Adam Augustyn and others, 'Cupid: Roman God', Britannica, November 25, 2021, <https://www.britannica.com/topic/Cupid> [Accessed 3 February 2022].
Bobby Dempsey, 'Why Is Cupid the Symbol of Valentine’s Day?', Reader's Digest, January 15, 2022, <https://www.rd.com/article/why-is-cupid-the-symbol-of-valentines-day/> [Accessed 3 February 2022].
Gloria Lotha and others, 'St. Valentine: Christian Martyr', Britannica, January 5, 2021, <https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Valentine> [Accessed 3 February 2022].
Helen Charlie Nellist, 'Lupercalia and its relationship to Valentine's Day', Vindolanda Charitable Trust, <https://www.vindolanda.com/blog/lupercalia> [Accessed 3 February 2022].
History.com Editors, 'Lupercalia', A&E Television Networks, February 13, 2020,<https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-rome/lupercalia> [Accessed 3 February 2022].
History.com Editors, 'St. Valentine beheaded', A&E Television Networks, February 10, 2021, <https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/st-valentine-beheaded> [Accessed 3 February 2022].
Love Actually, dir. by Richard Curtis (Universal Pictures, 2003).