And it’s Valentine’s Day today. But of course you already knew that; if you didn’t, why have you been living under a rock?
As this particular event piqued my curiosity, I decided to skim over Wikipedia’s page on the said event. It’s the not the most reliable of sources, I know, but I was too lazy to do actual research and my father’s hoarded the encyclopedia CDs we used to have lying around the house.
Apparently there are many St. Valentine’s who lived lives of martyrdom, but the feast day of February 14th was attributed to the first ever Saint Valentine. There’s not much known about the dude, except for the fact that he became a saint and that he was buried (yes buried, not died) on February 14th. Because there’s very little that’s known about the dude, the ‘powers that be’ on Vatican decided to remove his feast day from the Roman Catholic Calendar of Saints.
The name ‘Valentine’ had never even been linked to anything remotely romantic until famed poet Geoffrey Chaucer mentioned the name in one of his works.
“For this was on seynt Volantynys day
Whan euery bryd comyth there to chese his make.”
— Parlement of Foules (1382)
This particular passage was about the wedding of young Richard II of England to Anne of Bohemia on May 2nd, 1381. Obviously there’s no date mentioned on the poem itself so I assume people just misinterpreted that their wedding took place on February 14th, which was not the case. Now I don’t know who “Volantynys” is, but it’s the root of the annual romance fest during mid-February.
History has always been interesting, for me anyway. It’s like a vast collection of trivialities that won’t affect one’s life in anyway, but the tiny little factoids are still interesting. At the very least they can be conversation starters at parties when the topics run dry.
As for me, I’ll be spending most of today in transit to Tanay, Rizal to visit the wake of a relative. It’s a sad event, not only because of the death in the family, but also because I’ll miss the chance to spend the day with a couple of friends from high school in a group date. Oh well, there’s always next time, I guess.
Happy Valentine’s, everybody. Stay safe.
