A Service of The Arrow           Friday February 4, 2000 11:34 AM

ARROW STAFF

As Valentine's Day comes around, people think of teddy bears, candy, and hugs. But what is the real root of Valentine's Day? Why do we have a celebration that revolves around love every 14th day of February?

Valentine's Day probably derives its origins from an ancient Roman feast called Lupercalia. When Rome was young, ferocious wolves roamed in the woods nearby. The Romans had many gods and they called upon one named Lupercus to keep the wolves away. They held a festival on February 15th in honor of Lupercus.

One of the customs of the young Roman people was name drawing. On the eve of Lupercalia, the names of Roman girls were written on slips of paper and placed in jars. Each young man drew a slip and the name of the girl on the slip was to be his sweetheart for the next year.

As the legend goes, the holiday became named after a priest named Valentine. Valentine was a priest in Rome at the time that Christianity was a new religion. The Emperor at the time, Claudius II, ordered his Roman soldiers NOT to marry or become engaged. Claudius believed that if his soldiers were married, they would want to stay home with their families rather that fight his wars. Valentine defied the Emperor's decree and secretly married the young couples. His defiance was eventually found out, he was arrested, imprisoned, and put to death.

Valentine was beheaded on February 14th... the eve of the Roman holiday Lupercalia. After his death, Valentine was named a saint. As Rome became more Christian, the priests moved the holiday from the 15th to the 14th and renamed it Valentine's Day, in honor of St. Valentine.

Source of information: www.holidays.net/amore/story.html

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