VALENTINE'S DAY: LOVE WASN'T ALWAYS AT HEART OF HOLIDAYVALENTINE'S DAY: LOVE WASN'T ALWAYS AT HEART OF HOLIDAY
FARMVILLE - Valentine's
Day now may mean flowers, candy and hearts, but its origins go back to wild
parties and sacrificing animals. Raymond J. Cormier, a Longwood College
French professor and founding member of the International Courtly Literature
Society, says that sacrificing goats, and wolves when available, was an
original part of what has become Valentine's Day.
Cormier, whose wife, Patricia Cormier, is Longwood' s president, is a scholar in languages and literature. His specialty is medieval comparative literature.
"At 59 years old, I'm in a unique position to providea bridge between the past and the present and get people interested in more than just the news of the day," Raymond Cormier said. "I think it matters if you know something about Valentine's! Day. It will make you a better consumer."
Valentine's Day originally was the Roman holiday Lupercalia,. a wild festival held in February in which revelers ran around in goats' skin's, he said.
The fall of the Roman Empire left an opening for the church, and by A.D. 500, festivals had pretty much been eliminated, Cormier said.
"I have a feeling that the church, in order to smother this pagan wild dancing in the street, co-opted it."
Valentine's Day is associated with two saints, both martyred. In the third century, Cormier said, Bishop Valentine was brought before Emperor Claudius and imprisoned for refusing to give up his Christian beliefs. He started writing letters to friends and they wrote back.
In the eighth century, another bishop also wrote letters from prison before his demise, Cormier said.
By the 16th century, Valentine's Day was associated with lovers in distress, thanks largely to the work of earlier troubadours who wandered southern France advancing the idea of courtly love in their lyric poetry, Cormier said.
Cormier believes the colors red and white, and candy and flowers are comparatively modern.
"I would say the Victorian period is when that gets added in to the love notes."
Other associations also are easy to understand, he said.
Chocolate has long been considered a sensual treat and could be expected to be connected with a holiday associated with romance, Cormier said. Flowers are popular for other holidays associated with love and life.
Of course, florists have helped to promote the connection.
Cormier also wondered whether Hollywood's 1920s heartthrob Rudolph Valentino helped the holiday.
"America's fascination with history is very obvious in current films," he said.
The theme that love has a transforming power continues today and is present in the Jack Nicholson movie, "As Good As It Gets."
"He says to her at one point, 'You make me feel like I want to be a better man.' It's perfect," Cormier said.
We're fortunate to have such holidays, he said. "Otherwise, it would be very boring day in and day out. I think with all the technology around us it's a way of maintaining our humanity." "It's a handwritten note. It's not e-mail."
BY JAMIE C. RUFF -- STAFF WRITER
Richmond Times-Dispatch, February 14, 1998