The Westmeath Community Hall is holding a Valentine’s Dinner and Dance on Saturday, February 15… close enough to celebrate romance and kissy-face. This is the first one to happen in a few years and I intend to take advantage of this important celebration.
I feel I might be slipping lately in the romance department so the timing is good to get back on track. I’ll even buy a little gift for Sheila beforehand, not too expensive though as I don’t want to set a precedent. Whatever it might be she will be astonished.
St. Valentine’s Day is an annual festival to celebrate romantic love, friendship and admiration. Every year on February 14, people celebrate by sending messages of love and affection to partners, family and friends.
And so the celebration of Valentine’s Day goes on, in varied ways. Many will break the bank buying jewelry and flowers for their beloveds. A few may even be spending this day the same way the early Romans did. But the origins of this festival of candy and cupids are actually dark, bloody and muddled.
Though no one has pinpointed the exact beginning of the holiday, one good place to start is ancient Rome, the feast of Lupercalia, February 13 to 15, where men hit on women by, well, hitting them. Tradition was to sacrifice a goat and a dog, then whip women with the hides of the animals. I wouldn’t go any further than a soft goose plume. Young women would actually line up for the men to hit them, believing this would make them fertile.
This fete also included a matchmaking lottery in which young men would draw the names of women from a jar. The twosome would be coupled up for the rest of the festival – or longer if the match was right. Heck, this is riskier than going on a blind date!
As the years went on, the holiday grew sweeter. Chaucer and Shakespeare romanticized it in their works and so gained popularity throughout Britain and the rest of Europe. Eventually the tradition made its way to America where Hallmark Card soon began mass production of valentine cards. February has never been the same since.
Although Valentine’s Day has never been that ‘lucky’ for me, one hurtful memory continues to haunt me. Sheila and I were both in Grade 3 at the Westmeath Public School at the time. Sheila, big on valentine cards, handed a personalized one to each person in class – except me. She claims it was an oversight but to this very day I am unclear what her intention was!
It reminds me of an ironical story from a woman in Deep River. After an amicable divorce she decided it was time to start dating. For starters, she scanned the personal columns in the newspaper and came across three men that seemed promising. A few days later, she received a telephone message from her ex. It said, “I was over visiting the kids yesterday and happened to notice you had circled some ads in the paper. Don’t bother calling the guy in the second column. I can tell you right now it won’t work out. That guy is me.’”
Valentine’s Day is an opportunity for people in Canada to tell somebody that they love them in a romantic way. It falls on February 14, the name day of two saints, St Valentine of Rome and St Valentine of Terni. In pre-Christian times, the middle of February was a time of pagan fertility festivals in Europe as well and allegedly the time when birds chose a mate.
I’m hopeful that the dinner and dance go smoothly… for me too. The dinner will be delicious as usual but when I’m dancing I sometimes lose concentration and miss a step. Also unacceptable is noticing someone else on the dance floor and forgetting to pay attention to my partner.
So if everything plays out like I plan, then upon reaching home afterwards I will be able to say with poise, “Especially today honey, I hope you know how much I love you and how grateful I am to have you in my life.”
