Larian Studios Forums General Chat Chat (Anything) Valentine's Day

Doesn't fit that much here, but ...

I've read that in the antique times the apples was a special gift : It meant that someone liked another person.

I don't know where this comes from, but I've read the theory that this comes from the bible, Genesis.

Very good!!!! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ROFL.gif" alt="" /> One of the best comics in Belgium!!

Leve Gummbah!! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

Let the rest of the year for all of you will be as it was yesterday at the Valentine's Day - full with love and care.

Ok, ok I am a bit late <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/silly.gif" alt="" />

Kiya, glad to see you again <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/kissyou.gif" alt="" />

janggut welcome back <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wave.gif" alt="" />

Thanks a lot Alrik.
I did not know that it was Genesis who had written the holy bible. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

Barta

Interesting info on this subject can be found here:
http://www.headlinemuse.com/aphroadvice/February.htm

And a little about the apples here:
http://www.headlinemuse.com/aphroadvice/fevrier02.htm

Tsel <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Genesis is one of the books in/of the bible (the first book).

And that's why apples are "special"... - the Adam and Eve story.
<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

okay, this topic needs to be moved here: Here

Tsel <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

Lynn
Please come back !
Setharmon, Stone and Tsel, are trying to steal your job ! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" />
<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ROFL.gif" alt="" />

Barta

@Shantara - I stumbled over your apple oracle, and had a faint memory in my head, needed research, so here it is:

If girls peel an apple in one piece and throw the peel over the right shoulder, the way it falls on the floor can indicate, if she is going to remain at home next year or find a bridegroom, even be able to find out the name. Men could do that also, but (a bit lazy, hm?), they only needed to eat an apple at X-Mas morning in front of their house and watch the 1st girl to come along => their fate.

Now for Valentine:
in medieval times it was the day to celebrate with large meals by gilds and brotherhoods, to remember this heretic priest, who became a martyr during the time of the Roman Emperor Claudius II. Saint Valentine normally shows the beginning of carnival - and... in very old times, it was called the "love-a-Lot-day" (Vielliebchentag) in Germany, as girls used to believe, they would marry the first man coming up in front of their house. From medieval times on, it was the day of youth and love and... was probably originated in Ancient ROMAN times, to celebrate the Goddess Juno. Some say, it is the day, where wild birds search for a partner, and this would be the real origin.

And I found more: since Queen Victoria's time, tiny cards with lace, roses and hearts were sent - love oracles were asked, in a form of a lottery.

e.g.: Girls write the names of their lovers on paper slips, put them into clay, throw those bullets into the water. The first slip coming up => bridegroom.
In former times, children liked this day, as it was a day of presents for another. England => kids stood up very early and tried to catch someone before sunrise. If the kid could say 2x:" Good morning, Valentine", it got a present. If the sun rose before that => the present was "burnt by the sun".

Source: Sybil Gräfin Schönfeldt: Das große Ravensburger Buch der Feste und Bräuche. (it's a German source, but the author gathered a lot of quaint traditions dealing with everything).

Soooooo, those saying: Ugh, it's no German(ic) tradition, are wrong <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" /> - Valentine is a very old celebration day, adapted by the Christians, but its origin was lost during centuries.

Kiya

@Egin => I can't be on the forum as often as I used to be, sorry. I'm very busy and will keep busy for the next months - but I'll pop in 1x a week, or so.

PPS: As for apples - this fruit existed before the bible was written and has been a symbol of fertility ever since mankind turned into farmers and settlers - adapted by Jews/Christians again, but only adapted, not originated <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/delight.gif" alt="" /> - so, no bible copyright.... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/evilgrin1.gif" alt="" />

Nah... I don't get payed for this.

Why me? What did I do? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />
I only explained about the first valentine apple. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/sad.gif" alt="" />

I did not say that you are expecting money.


It's a joke about this and this
<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shhh.gif" alt="" />

Barta

Barta and Seth, if you don't go back on topic we'll have to move this discussion elsewhere.

Übereil <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

@ Kiya -> Thank you so much for the information that you posted about Valentine's
Day. I had not seen alot of the material that you posted and I found it very
interesting. Thanks again for sharing. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

@ Tsel -> Thank you for sharing the information that you found also. Again I
hadn't read the information that you found either. I find things like this very
interesting and finding out about them. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Thank you both again for sharing. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Shan <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Shantara >

No problem.
Glad I could help. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Tsel <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wave.gif" alt="" />

Well, as everyone knows i am pagan anyway (wan't it Luc who made the comments of a hedonist!!!!) <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
Do not take offence, as that is not how it is meant...just education on my side.

Like Christmas, Easter, Halloween, New Year's and other holidays of this world, St. Valentine's Day is another attempt to “whitewash” perverted customs and observances of pagan gods and idols by “Christianizing” them.

As innocent and harmless as St. Valentine's Day may appear, its traditions and customs originate from two of the most sexually perverted pagan festivals of ancient history: Lupercalia and the feast day of Juno Februata.

Celebrated on February 15, Lupercalia (known as the “festival of sexual license”) was held by the ancient Romans in honor of Lupercus, god of fertility and husbandry, protector of herds and crops, and a mighty hunter—especially of wolves. The Romans believed that Lupercus would protect Rome from roving bands of wolves, which devoured livestock and people.

Assisted by Vestal Virgins, the Luperci (male priests) conducted purification rites by sacrificing goats and a dog in the Lupercal cave on Palatine Hill, where the Romans believed the twins Romulus and Remus had been sheltered and nursed by a she-wolf before they eventually founded Rome. Clothed in loincloths made from sacrificed goats and smeared in their blood, the Luperci would run about Rome, striking women with februa, thongs made from skins of the sacrificed goats. The Luperci believed that the floggings purified women and guaranteed their fertility and ease of childbirth. February derives from februa or “means of purification.”

To the Romans, February was also sacred to Juno Februata, the goddess of febris (“fever”) of love, and of women and marriage. On February 14, billets (small pieces of paper, each of which had the name of a teenage girl written on it) were put into a container. Teenage boys would then choose one billet at random. The boy and the girl whose name was drawn would become a “couple,” joining in erotic games at feasts and parties celebrated throughout Rome. After the festival, they would remain sexual partners for the rest of the year. This custom was observed in the Roman Empire for centuries.

Whitewashing Perversion

In A.D. 494, Pope Gelasius renamed the festival of Juno Februata as the “Feast of the Purification of the Virgin Mary.” The date of its observance was later changed from February 14 to February 2. It is also known as Candlemas, the Presentation of the Lord, the Purification of the Blessed Virgin and the Feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple.

After Constantine had made the Roman church's brand of Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire (A.D. 325), church leaders wanted to do away with the pagan festivals of the people. Lupercalia was high on their list. But the Roman citizens thought otherwise.

It was not until A.D. 496 that the church at Rome was able to do anything about Lupercalia. Powerless to get rid of it, Pope Gelasius instead changed it from February 15 to the 14th and called it St. Valentine's Day. It was named after one of that church's saints, who, in A.D. 270, was executed by the emperor for his beliefs.

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, “At least three different Saint Valentines, all of them martyrs, are mentioned in early martyrologies under the date of 14 February. One is described as a priest at Rome, another as bishop of Interamna (modern Terni), and these two seem both to have suffered in the second half of the third century and to have been buried on the Flaminian Way, but at different distances from the city…Of the third Saint Valentine, who suffered in Africa with a number of companions, nothing is further known.” Several biographies of different men named Valentine were merged into one “official” St. Valentine.

The church whitewashed Lupercalia even further. Instead of putting the names of girls into a box, the names of “saints” were drawn by both boys and girls. It was then each person's duty to emulate the life of the saint whose name he or she had drawn. This was Rome's vain attempt to “whitewash” a pagan observance by “Christianizing” it, which God has not given man the power or authority to do. Though the church at Rome had banned the sexual lottery, young men still practiced a much toned-down version, sending women whom they desired handwritten romantic messages containing St. Valentine's name.

Over the centuries, St. Valentine's Day cards became popular, especially by the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. These cards were painted with pictures of Cupid and hearts, and meticulously decorated with lace, silk or flowers.