|
||||||
|
Today in History
History's Happenings for February 14
Stars & Stripes Arrive in First Foreign Port
(Stay tuned for a write-up on this event.
Birth of Frederick Douglass
(Stay tuned for a write-up on this event. (Stay tuned for a write-up on this event.
Department of Commerce and Labor Established
(Stay tuned for a write-up on this event.
Arizona Admitted to Union
(Stay tuned for a write-up on this event.
St. Valentine's Day Massacre
(Stay tuned for a write-up on this event.
Dresden Annihilated By Allied Bombing
(Stay tuned for a write-up on this event. St. Valentine's Day commemorates the festival of two saints -- both named Valentine -- who lived in the third century. How it came to be a day for lovers is conjecture, likely coinciding with one or another ancient pagan ritual, or with the fact that a variety of small animals and birds choose to mate about this time in temperate areas. But the celebration of St. Valentine's Day is reminiscent of the days when love was a thing of the heart, rather than a thing of the loins the way it is today. For that reason, we hope it continues to be enjoyed. This is the first day of Lent, which lasts forty days and represents a time of penance. Devout Catholics attend Mass on the morn of Ash Wednesday and allow the priest to inscribe a cross on their foreheads with moist ashes as a symbol of that penance. The day is variously observed, usually without ashes, by Anglicans and Protestants as well. The forty day period, ending on Palm Sunday, represents the trials of Moses and Elijah and, most of all, the fasting of Christ during his time in the desert, resisting the entreaties of evil. The ashes are normally produced by burning palm fronds saved from the previous year's Palm Sunday, a full circle in that Palm Sunday represents Christ's return from the wilderness and entry into Jerusalem.
|