where does Valentin's day come from?
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valentine's day came from St. Valentine. He is a roman priest in nearly 600-700 a.d. In his time, roman should praise their roman god and godess, but valentine worship Chrsit, our God. That's why the emperor of that time decided to persecute Valentine. While he was in the jail, waiting for his persecution, Valentine wrote a letter for his love ones. He was persecuted and died february 14. \n\nEvery year, his family and friends celebrate his death by sharing their love to each other. When valentine became a saint. The tradition of his family spread all over the world. Thats how valentine's day originatred.
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The days of the week were named after the sun and the moon and the five planets w/c are also the names of the Roman gods abd goddesses.\n\nThe ancient Romans named the first two days of the week in honor of the sun and the moon, and so we call them  Sunday ( sun's day ) and Monday (moon's day ). The other five planets were named for Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn.\n\nThe Anglo-Saxons, a Germanic people who settled in England long ago and from whose language our English name come changed the Roman names for four days and named them after their own gods.\n\nTuesday was the day of the Tow (Tiw's days), the war god. \nWednesday was named in honor of Woden (Woden's day), leader of their gods.\nThursday was the day of Thor (Thor's day), god of thunder, and \nFriday the day of Frig, queen of thier gods.\nThe Roman "Saturn's day" remained as Saturday.
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Valentine's Day occurs annually on Februay 14. Modern day customs include sending greeting cards known as valentines to loved ones. School rooms are often decorated with lace and paper hearts. Gifts of candy and flowers are also common at this time.\n\nThe origins of Valentine's Day are uncertain. Many experts believe that it originated with Lupercalia, a Roman celebration honoring the wolves Romulus and Remus. During this festival, young men struck women with a goatskin hide called a februa. Receiving the blows was thought to make women more fertile and to ease childbirth. At Lupercalia, the names of all the young women in the city were placed in a box. Young men drew a name from the box and the couple would be paired until the next Lupercalia. Lupercalia was replaced with Valentine's Day by Christians.\n\nOthers trace Valentine's Day back to the rule of the Roman emperor Claudius II. In the 200's C. E., Claudius become frustrated when he had trouble recruiting soldiers into his army. Believing that the young men did not want to leave their wives and children, Claudius banned all marriages of single young men. However, a priest named Valentine disobeyed Claudius and performed secret marriages. Claudius found out about the marriages and sentenced Valentine to prison until his death on February 14, 270 C. E.\n\nMany historians believe the custom of sending poetic verse on this day originated with the capture of Charles, Duke of Orleans, during the Battle of Agincourt. From his prison cell in the Tower of London, Charles sent his wife a rhyming love letter.\n\nValentine cards became popular in Great Britain in the nineteenth century. Noted artist Kate Greenaway created cards which featured joyful children and beautiful gardens. Esther Howland was one of the first Valentine card manufacturers in the United States. Inspired by a British card, she began production in 1847. Her cards featured lace and paper flowers and leaves. Other card manufacturers emphasized Cupid, the pudgy, winged son of Venus, the goddess of love. In Roman lore, Cupid is known as Eros, the son of Aphrodite.
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There are different legends but all I have read stated that St. Valentine a roman catholic priest in the third century of Rome, started it all. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers he outlawed marriages for young men. Valentine thought this was a great injustice and began to secretly marry young lovers. When this was discovered he was jailed. That is one story another was that he was jailed for not denounceing his faith and one says he tried to help christians escape the roman jails because they were often beaten and tortured for being christian. In the end all the stories say that while he was in jail he fell in love with the jailer's daughter who visited him often. Before he died he left her a love letter that was signed : from your Valentine.  I read he was killed February 14, 269 A.D. and  in 469 A.D. Pope Gelasius set that day aside in honor of St. Valentine. \nIn the U.S. though, Miss Esther HOwland is given credit for sending the very first valentine cards and in the 1800's commercial valentines were introduced.
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Every February, across the country, candy, flowers, and gifts are exchanged between loved ones, all in the name of St. Valentine. But who is this mysterious saint and why do we celebrate this holiday? The history of Valentine's Day -- and its patron saint -- is shrouded in mystery. But we do know that February has long been a month of romance. St. Valentine's Day, as we know it today, contains vestiges of both Christian and ancient Roman tradition. So, who was Saint Valentine and how did he become associated with this ancient rite? Today, the Catholic Church recognizes at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom were martyred.\n\nOne legend contends that Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he outlawed marriage for young men -- his crop of potential soldiers. Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When Valentine's actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death.\n\nOther stories suggest that Valentine may have been killed for attempting to help Christians escape harsh Roman prisons where they were often beaten and tortured.\n\nAccording to one legend, Valentine actually sent the first 'valentine' greeting himself. While in prison, it is believed that Valentine fell in love with a young girl -- who may have been his jailor's daughter -- who visited him during his confinement. Before his death, it is alleged that he wrote her a letter, which he signed 'From your Valentine,' an expression that is still in use today. Although the truth behind the Valentine legends is murky, the stories certainly emphasize his appeal as a sympathetic, heroic, and, most importantly, romantic figure. It's no surprise that by the Middle Ages, Valentine was one of the most popular saints in England and France.\n\nWhile some believe that Valentine's Day is celebrated in the middle of February to commemorate the anniversary of Valentine's death or burial -- which probably occurred around 270 A.D -- others claim that the Christian church may have decided to celebrate Valentine's feast day in the middle of February in an effort to 'christianize' celebrations of the pagan Lupercalia festival. In ancient Rome, February was the official beginning of spring and was considered a time for purification. Houses were ritually cleansed by sweeping them out and then sprinkling salt and a type of wheat called spelt throughout their interiors. Lupercalia, which began at the ides of February, February 15, was a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, as well as to the Roman founders Romulus and Remus.\n\nTo begin the festival, members of the Luperci, an order of Roman priests, would gather at the sacred cave where the infants Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, were believed to have been cared for by a she-wolf or lupa. The priests would then sacrifice a goat, for fertility, and a dog, for purification.\n\nThe boys then sliced the goat's hide into strips, dipped them in the sacrificial blood and took to the streets, gently slapping both women and fields of crops with the goathide strips. Far from being fearful, Roman women welcomed being touched with the hides because it was believed the strips would make them more fertile in the coming year. Later in the day, according to legend, all the young women in the city would place their names in a big urn. The city's bachelors would then each choose a name out of the urn and become paired for the year with his chosen woman. These matches often ended in marriage. Pope Gelasius declared February 14 St. Valentine's Day around 498 A.D. The Roman 'lottery' system for romantic pairing was deemed un-Christian and outlawed. Later, during the Middle Ages,
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In most places its the third weekend in June, but there is no "Gay Day" per se.  A few cities celebrate it later in the year.\n\nJust as side note, the reason why its in June is that it is the anniversary of the Stonewall "Riot" in 1969, one of the important events in the gay movement.
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Lucky or unlucky, Friday is one of the most popular days in the week. TGIF is the commonly used acronym meaning "Thank Goodness It's Fiday!". There is even a popular restaurant that goes by the name, claiming that whenever you eat there it is Friday. The love for the day is undoubtedly engendered by the fact that in the Western World it is the last workday of the week. \nIn predominantly Moslem countries, Friday is a holy day, a day to gather in the mosques at noon for prayers and to spend the day in religious contemplation. \n\nThe name of the day is derived from yet another Norse God (in this case a goddess), Frigga. She was believed to be the wife of Odin and was the goddess of marriage and the hearth. The Roman's had named this day for their goddess of beauty, Venus. They called it "dies veneris". When the Germanic tribes invaded England they imposed their goddess upon the day meant to honor Venus. The day was called frigedaeg, it has been corrupted over the centuries (since the 500's) to be "Friday". \n\nSince early times a Friday that falls on the 13th day of a month has been thought to be unlucky. Historians posit that this may be because there were thirteen persons present at the Last Supper of Christ and that this number proved unlucky; the following day (a Friday) Jesus was crucified. Find out when Friday the 13th falls for the rest of the year. \n\nThe Friday crucifiction spawned another Eastertime holiday known as Good Friday. The appellation, "good", was likely a corruption of the word, "God". So that Good Friday was originally, God's Friday, the day Christians believe God showed his love for the world by relinquishing his son.
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The Origins of St. Valentine's Day\n\nA quick quiz: St. Valentine was:\n\na)  a priest in the Roman Empire who helped persecuted Christians during the reign of Claudius II, was thrown in jail and later beheaded on Feb. 14.\n\nb)  a Catholic bishop of Terni who was beheaded, also during the reign of Claudius II.\n\nc)  someone who secretly married couples when marriage was forbidden, or suffered in Africa, or wrote letters to his jailer's daughter, and was probably beheaded.\n\nd)  all, some, or possibly none of the above.\n\nIf you guessed d), give yourself a box of chocolates. Although the mid-February holiday celebrating love and lovers remains wildly popular, the confusion over its origins led the Catholic Church, in 1969, to drop St. Valentine's Day from the Roman calendar of official, worldwide Catholic feasts. (Those highly sought-after days are reserved for saints with more clear historical record. After all, the saints are real individuals for us to imitate.) Some parishes, however, observe the feast of St. Valentine.\n\nThe roots of St. Valentine's Day lie in the ancient Roman festival of Lupercalia, which was celebrated on Feb. 15. For 800 years the Romans had dedicated this day to the god Lupercus. On Lupercalia, a young man would draw the name of a young woman in a lottery and would then keep the woman as a sexual companion for the year.\n\nPope Gelasius I was, understandably, less than thrilled with this custom. So he changed the lottery to have both young men and women draw the names of saints whom they would then emulate for the year (a change that no doubt disappointed a few young men). Instead of Lupercus, the patron of the feast became Valentine. For Roman men, the day continued to be an occasion to seek the affections of women, and it became a tradition to give out handwritten messages of admiration that included Valentine's name.\n\nThere was also a conventional belief in Europe during the Middle Ages that birds chose their partners in the middle of February. Thus the day was dedicated to love, and people observed it by writing love letters and sending small gifts to their beloved. Legend has it that Charles, duke of Orleans, sent the first real Valentine card to his wife in 1415, when he was imprisoned in the Tower of London. (He, however, was not beheaded, and died a half-century later of old age
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Saint Valentine's Day falls on February 14. It is the traditional day on which lovers let each other know about their love by sending Valentine's cards, which are often anonymous. The holiday is named after two men named Valentine, both Christain martyrs. The day became associated with romantic love in the High Middle Ages, when the tradition of courtly love flourished.\n\nFebruary 14 was traditionally dedicated to two ancient martyrs named Valentine. They are listed in early martyrologies under the date of February 14, which suggests that this is date of their deaths. There is a third St. Valentine from Africa who was also martyred on February 14, but he didn't get a saint's day. There is very little information about any these Valentines that can be considered historically accurate. The Valentines honored on February 14 are:\n\nValentine of Rome - a priest in Rome who suffered martyrdom about AD 269 and is buried on the Via Flaminia. His relics are at the Church of Saint Praxed in Rome  and at Whitefriar Street Carmelite Church in Dublin, Ireland. \nValentine of Terni - He became bishop of Interamna (modern Terni) about AD 197 and is said to have been killed during the persecution of Emperor Aurelian. He is also buried on the Via Flaminia, but in a different location than Valentine of Rome. His relics are at the beautiful Basilica of Saint Valentine in Terni (Basilica di San Valentino). \nSome sources say the Valentine linked to romance is Valentine of Rome, others say Valentine of Terni. The Bollandists have concluded that the two were originally the same person.
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:}\nValentines Day wouldn't be the same without a visit from Cupid, the winged cherub with a bow and arrow which he uses to place people into love.\nThe origins of Cupid can be traced back to the days of the Roman Empire. Cupid is a Roman God, the symbol of passionate love. (He is the son of Venus, who remember is the Goddess of Love.) Cupid fell madly and completely in love with Psyche, whom it happened was a mortal. This did not please Venus at all and she gave Psyche a particularly hard time, consistently tempting her and driving her off. Eventually, through a small series of human faults, Psyche was tempted to look into the ‘box of beauty’ and when she did, she unleashed a deep slumber onto herself. Cupid then came to Earth and searched the world for her. He found her in her deep sleep. His love for her was so strong though that he was able to take the sleep from her and place it back into the box. Then he used an arrow to pierce her heart and awaken her.
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The word "Tuesday", however, was derived from a wholly different religious tradition. Tyr or Tiw was the Norse God of War. When the Germanic Angles and Saxon's invaded England in the 500's they suplanted a culture that had been heavily influenced by Rome for several hundred years. The day, Tuesday, had already been named for the Roman God of War, Martius (notice in French, Italian, and Spanish - the word for Tuesday is still derivative of the Roman God - Mardi, Martedi and Martes - respectively). When the Germanic tribes conquered England, they laid their own lexicon over that of the Roman's so that the Norse God of War now supplanted the Roman God of War (after all the Norse God was obviously more potent). Thus they called the day of the God of War tiwesdaeg. \n\n--http://www.indepthinfo.com/weekdays/tuesday.shtml
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Ancient Romans celebrated a holiday known as Floralia as their spring celebration. This eventually involved into May Day, a time for fertility and renewal. Fertility was very important for people, livestock and crops, and so fertility celebrations tend to be the most important celebrations in the ancient world and this was the most active of the Fertility holidays in Europe. People danced around a May-pole (a symbol of masculine fertility) wrapping it with ribbons (symbolizing the poles entrance into the female fertility symbol). It was also a very popular night for maidens to lose their virginity. Today Pagans still celebrate the holiday, calling it Beltane\n\nIt is also International Workers day, commemorating a labor riot in Chicago
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Such a day exists in most latin countries "Dia del Niño" and is celebrated on april 30th. Tradition is to go out with your own children or to give something back to society by giving to children of the least fortunate.
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Valentine's Day started in the time of the Roman Empire.  In ancient Rome, February 14th was a holiday to honour Juno.  Juno was the Queen of the Roman Gods and Goddesses.  The Romans also knew her as the Goddess of women and marriage.  The following day, February 15th, began the Feast of Lupercalia.\n\nThe lives of young boys and girls were strictly separate.  However, one of the customs of the young people was name drawing.  On the eve of the festival of Lupercalia the names of Roman girls were written on slips of paper and placed into jars.  Each young man would draw a girl's name from the jar and would then be partners for the duration of the festival with the girl whom he chose.  Sometimes the pairing of the children lasted an entire year, and often, they would fall in love and would later marry.\n\nUnder the rule of Emperor Claudius II Rome was involved in many bloody and unpopular campaigns.  Claudius the Cruel was having a difficult time getting soldiers to join his military leagues.  He believed that the reason was that roman men did not want to leave their loves or families.  As a result, Claudius cancelled all marriages and engagements in Rome.  The good Saint Valentine was a priest at Rome in the days of Claudius II.  He and Saint Marius aided the Christian martyrs and secretly married couples, and for this kind deed Saint Valentine was apprehended and dragged before the Prefect of Rome, who condemned him to be beaten to death with clubs and to have his head cut off.  He suffered martyrdom on the 14th day of February, about the year 270.  At that time it was the custom in Rome, a very ancient custom, indeed, to celebrate in the month of February the Lupercalia, feasts in honour of a heathen god.  On these occasions, amidst a variety of pagan ceremonies, the names of young women were placed in a box, from which they were drawn by the men as chance directed.\n\nThe pastors of the early Christian Church in Rome endeavoured to do away with the pagan element in these feasts by substituting the names of saints for those of maidens.  And as the Lupercalia began about the middle of February, the pastors appear to have chosen Saint Valentine's Day for the celebration of this new feaSt. So it seems that the custom of young men choosing maidens for valentines, or saints as patrons for the coming year, arose in this way.
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Every February, across the country, candy, flowers, and gifts are exchanged between loved ones, all in the name of St. Valentine. But who is this mysterious saint and why do we celebrate this holiday? The history of Valentine's Day -- and its patron saint -- is shrouded in mystery. But we do know that February has long been a month of romance. St. Valentine's Day, as we know it today, contains vestiges of both Christian and ancient Roman tradition. So, who was Saint Valentine and how did he become associated with this ancient rite? Today, the Catholic Church recognizes at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom were martyred.\n\nOne legend contends that Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he outlawed marriage for young men -- his crop of potential soldiers. Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When Valentine's actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death.
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May Day used to be a religous Holiday in most European countries. It was taken over by the lefties of the world.
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Okay . . . Okay . . . the questioner is correct . . . \n\nChristmas is originally a pagan holiday . . . a week long festival . . . actually 12 days long . . . reminds you of a song.\n\nThis holiday was adopted to convert pagans into Christianity . . . and they accepted it hook, line, and sinker.\n\nThe majority of the holidays celebrated by Christian have pagan origins . . . but back to Christmas . . . \n\nSome of you said you celebrate this day in remembrance of the birth of Christ.  Did Christ ask his followers to remember his birth?  No he did not . . . instead he commanded his followers to commemorate the last supper in his remembrance . . . . Not do perform it daily or weekly . . . but annually like the early christians did . . . prior to 325 AD.