Do they celebrate Valentine's Day outside the U.S.?

[Kelley <kelleythompson@gbronline.com>]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, Susanne <siskiou at e...> wrote:
> No, I don't think it's made up.
> 
> IIRC, it has it's origin in Roman history.
> Something about soldiers being forbidden to get married,
> thinking a married soldier would rather stay home, instead of
> fight.
> 
> A priest named Valentine defied the emperor's order and secretly
> married young couples. He was punished for his crime and
> later became the patron saint of lovers. >>>>>>>>

Hm, interesting coincidence here, I just came across this post on 
another board:  

From: Kurt 
Subject: Valentine's Day 

Can anyone attest to the veracity of this? Always the cynic, I have
observed the following regarding this dubious day:

As early as 400 B.C. young Romans engaged in a rite of passage to
their god Lupercus. Names of teenage women were placed in a box and
randomly drawn; thus was born the Roman Hook-up. The two young lovers
were companions in the fullest sense for one year, until the next
lottery. Some 800 years later early Catholic fathers had had enough:
they were determined to put an end to the pagan practice, thus 
supplanting the diety Lupercus. Who then a better candidate than the 
martyred bishop Valentine?

Flashback to 270 A.D. Emperor Claudius was fuming. He believed married
men made poor soldiers, so he forbade marriage. That way, soldiers
would owe their loyalty to Rome, not home.

Enter Valentine, bishop of Interamna. Valentine practiced the 
forbidden sacrament of matrimony in secrecy. Well, the Emperor had a 
sense of dignity about it all, so upon discovery of Valentine's 
treachery, he attempted to convert him to Roman deism. Remember, this 
a good half century before Constantine and all that business at the 
Milvian bridge, so Christianity was still consider a pagan, and oft 
persecuted, sect. Well, true to his convictions, Valentine refused, 
and he was subsequently clubbed, stoned, and then beheaded. 

Well fret not, because as we know, the worm soon turned, and these
'pleasantries' would of course soon be reciprocated... in full by
Ignatius and Torquemada, to name but a few. But I digress...

One more little sidebar to this is that, according to legend, while
awaiting execution, Valentine fell in love with the blind daughter
of one his jailers and miraculously restored her sight. Perhaps you'll
recognize the salutation of his farewell letter to his young love:
'From your Valentine.' Sound familiar?? Methinks Hallmark doth indeed
owe some big royalties - call Johnny Cochrane.

To the Catholic fathers, the ideal usurper of the popular Lupercus
was thereafter Valentine, so much so that in 496 Pope Gelasius seized
on the opportunity to outlaw the mid-February Lupercan festival 
altogether.  Once again, the sad gift of religion proves to be 
tolerance for intolerance.  Anyway, one popular practice endured, 
that being the drawing of names from a box in which all young singles 
participated. Much to the dismay of enthusiastic Middle Agers, the 
slip they drew was not the name of their soon-to-be significant 
other, but a prescription that they emulate the life of St. 
Valentine. Pretty clever, huh?

That being said, won't You be mine?? :)

*************

Ha, love the last line there.  No idea of the accuracy of what he 
stated; I just thought it was a rather intriguing post.

--Kelley