ENGLISH PRESENTATION Valentines Day ***** *******
Every year on the 14th of February it’s Valentines Day. One day a year is surrounded by romance, love and a little bit of mystic. Secret admirers conquer their love with poems and chocolate. Letters, often called valentines are opened with shaky and sweaty hands. The mailman’s have a busier time then the other days of the year and in many countries they deliver millions of cards and letters in millions of mailboxes. Not only cards are being send. In America people commonly send flowers and chocolates and in Japan people like to send chocolate to their beloved.
Therefore Valentines Day is a beautiful way of telling somebody that you love him or her. Today Valentines Day is rather used for more commercial purposes. Shops are making more profit, bookstores sell much more cards en flowerets are also doing very good business around this time of year. But I do question myself, why does there have to be a day like Valentines Day to let somebody you know that you love him or her. Can’t you do this every day of the year?
Now how did it start, that custom of sending somebody you love cards, flowers or chocolates on the 14th of February?
Several stories are being told about the origin of Valentines Day. In most of them the origin starts in the ancient Rome. The most popular story is about the young priest Valentinus. He looked after elderly, sick and other needing people from Rome; he also gave advice and blessed Christian marriages. One day this priest healed the blind stepdaughter of Asterius, the city keeper of Rome. Asterius then converted himself to Christianity en freed all the Christian prisoners. Emperor Claudius II refused to accept that and imprisoned priest Valentinus. On the 14th of February 270 a.C. priest Valentinus is being tortured and finally decapitated. Now the legend says that Valentinus left a note for the daughter of another imprisoner who became his friend. He signed the note with “From your Valentine” and with those words the tradition to sign cards with “Valentine” was born.
Now another story tells that Valentines Day comes forth out of the festival that was held in the ancient Roman Empire in honor of the fertility goddess Februa of Juno. This festival was called Lupercalia and was held the 15th of February. The Lupercalia already existed in the Greek mythology. In that mythology priests honor the God Pan in February. Pan was born as an adult with horns, beard, goat legs and a tail. He is the God Faunus, also called Lupercus. Lupercus is a demon god that has a wolf for a wife, called Luperca. According the tradition Luperca raised Romus and Romulus, founders and builders of the ancient city Rome. In February the priests who worship Lupercus walk over the streets wearing only goat skins. Then they hit the woman with belts of goat leather. This would have a positive effect on the fertility. On the festival Lupercalia a sort of lottery was held. Pubescent boys and girls had to pick a ticket and during the festival they belonged to each other. To celebrate, but more important, to lose their virginity. These Valentine parties began to spread over Europe and started to look different. Women are dancing half naked squandering foul language. After worshipping the fertility goddess they hide in the bushes where the men are already waiting.
In the Middle Ages Christianity spread over Europe. Monks and priests were dazzled by the pagan behaviour. They wanted to introduce the valentine parties within the Christianity and make it more proper. They succeeded by relating the name of the Saint Valentine to the festival. The only problem however is that hardly anyone knew who this Saint was. Apparently there were more then one. The first one is the decapitated priest Valentinus I was telling you earlier about. But in the third century another priest called Valentine or Valentinus existed. This priest married young couples in secret. He did this because Emperor Claudius II forbid his people to marry each other. It would make his men better soldiers if they were not married or so he thought. Emperor Claudius II eventually found out about this and imprisoned this Valentine to. He was executed on the 14th of February. In 496 a.C. pope Gelasius I called out the 14th February as a memorial day in honour of the Saint Valentine.
Now I told you the most commonly told stories about the existence of Valentines Day in the past. Today however, is an entire different story. Valentines Day is all about materialistic things. People send each other cards, flowers, chocolates and even digitally, through the internet. Anonymously is passé too. It happens more and more that people leave their names along with what they sent. What once was mysterious and forbidden now is open and almost obliged. You don’t even have to be in love to send somebody valentine presents. A good friendship is reason enough to use Valentines Day to let each other know. People use the day to spoil one or the other, take them to the movies or out for diner. But why do all this on Valentines Day alone? Why not any other of the 365 days in a year? You know what, that’s okay. I’m still glad we have a day like this. Only we should focus more on the persons involved and the feelings for them and not the presents we like to receive. Just like 2000 years ago.
This was my presentation about Valentines Day and I hope you all enjoyed it. Thank you.
Every year on the 14th of February it’s Valentines Day. One day a year is surrounded by romance, love and a little bit of mystic. Secret admirers conquer their love with poems and chocolate. Letters, often called valentines are opened with shaky and sweaty hands. The mailman’s have a busier time then the other days of the year and in many countries they deliver millions of cards and letters in millions of mailboxes. Not only cards are being send. In America people commonly send flowers and chocolates and in Japan people like to send chocolate to their beloved.
Therefore Valentines Day is a beautiful way of telling somebody that you love him or her. Today Valentines Day is rather used for more commercial purposes. Shops are making more profit, bookstores sell much more cards en flowerets are also doing very good business around this time of year. But I do question myself, why does there have to be a day like Valentines Day to let somebody you know that you love him or her. Can’t you do this every day of the year?
Several stories are being told about the origin of Valentines Day. In most of them the origin starts in the ancient Rome. The most popular story is about the young priest Valentinus. He looked after elderly, sick and other needing people from Rome; he also gave advice and blessed Christian marriages. One day this priest healed the blind stepdaughter of Asterius, the city keeper of Rome. Asterius then converted himself to Christianity en freed all the Christian prisoners. Emperor Claudius II refused to accept that and imprisoned priest Valentinus. On the 14th of February 270 a.C. priest Valentinus is being tortured and finally decapitated. Now the legend says that Valentinus left a note for the daughter of another imprisoner who became his friend. He signed the note with “From your Valentine” and with those words the tradition to sign cards with “Valentine” was born.
Now another story tells that Valentines Day comes forth out of the festival that was held in the ancient Roman Empire in honor of the fertility goddess Februa of Juno. This festival was called Lupercalia and was held the 15th of February. The Lupercalia already existed in the Greek mythology. In that mythology priests honor the God Pan in February. Pan was born as an adult with horns, beard, goat legs and a tail. He is the God Faunus, also called Lupercus. Lupercus is a demon god that has a wolf for a wife, called Luperca. According the tradition Luperca raised Romus and Romulus, founders and builders of the ancient city Rome. In February the priests who worship Lupercus walk over the streets wearing only goat skins. Then they hit the woman with belts of goat leather. This would have a positive effect on the fertility. On the festival Lupercalia a sort of lottery was held. Pubescent boys and girls had to pick a ticket and during the festival they belonged to each other. To celebrate, but more important, to lose their virginity. These Valentine parties began to spread over Europe and started to look different. Women are dancing half naked squandering foul language. After worshipping the fertility goddess they hide in the bushes where the men are already waiting.
In the Middle Ages Christianity spread over Europe. Monks and priests were dazzled by the pagan behaviour. They wanted to introduce the valentine parties within the Christianity and make it more proper. They succeeded by relating the name of the Saint Valentine to the festival. The only problem however is that hardly anyone knew who this Saint was. Apparently there were more then one. The first one is the decapitated priest Valentinus I was telling you earlier about. But in the third century another priest called Valentine or Valentinus existed. This priest married young couples in secret. He did this because Emperor Claudius II forbid his people to marry each other. It would make his men better soldiers if they were not married or so he thought. Emperor Claudius II eventually found out about this and imprisoned this Valentine to. He was executed on the 14th of February. In 496 a.C. pope Gelasius I called out the 14th February as a memorial day in honour of the Saint Valentine.
Now I told you the most commonly told stories about the existence of Valentines Day in the past. Today however, is an entire different story. Valentines Day is all about materialistic things. People send each other cards, flowers, chocolates and even digitally, through the internet. Anonymously is passé too. It happens more and more that people leave their names along with what they sent. What once was mysterious and forbidden now is open and almost obliged. You don’t even have to be in love to send somebody valentine presents. A good friendship is reason enough to use Valentines Day to let each other know. People use the day to spoil one or the other, take them to the movies or out for diner. But why do all this on Valentines Day alone? Why not any other of the 365 days in a year? You know what, that’s okay. I’m still glad we have a day like this. Only we should focus more on the persons involved and the feelings for them and not the presents we like to receive. Just like 2000 years ago.
This was my presentation about Valentines Day and I hope you all enjoyed it. Thank you.
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