Thread by @AxelSavage4

1)Thread entitled: 'Valentine's Day another Pagan Feast hidden behind a Christian Veil?
W the Superbowl yesterday & Valentine's Day today, I'm hard pressed to think of another time in my life when I have recognized back-to-back celebrations like this but draw your own conclusions

2) Many consider Valentine's Day to be a Christian holiday. After all, it is named after a Christian saint. But let's consider the matter more closely.

Juno Fructifier or Juno Februata...

3) The Romans celebrated a holiday on February 14th to honor Juno Fructifier, Queen of the Roman gods and goddesses. In one ritual, women would submit their names to a common box & men would each draw one out.

4) These two would be a couple for the duration of the festival (and at times for the entire following year). Both rituals were designed to promote fertility and fornication

5) Feast of Lupercalia
On February 15, Romans celebrated Lupercalia, honoring Faunus, god of fertility. Men would go to a grotto dedicated to Lupercal, the wolf god, located at the foot of Palatine Hill and where Romans believed that the founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus,

6) were suckled by a she-wolf. The men would sacrifice a goat, don its skin, and run around, hitting women with small whips in an act which was believed to promote fertility.

7) St. Valentine, Christian Priest
According to 1 story, Roman emperor Claudius II imposed a ban on marriages because too many young men were dodging the draft by getting married (only single men had to enter the army)

8) A Christian priest named Valentinus was caught performing secret marriages & sentenced to death. While awaiting execution, he was visited by young lovers with notes about how much better love is than war. Some think of these love letters as the first valentines.

9) Valentinus's execution occurred on February 14th in the year 269 C.E.

10) St. Valentine, 2nd & 3rd
Another Valentinus was a priest jailed for helping Christians. During his stay, he fell in love with the jailer's daughter & sent her notes signed "from your Valentine." He was eventually beheaded and buried on the Via Flaminia.

11) Christianity Takes Over Valentine's Day
In 469, Pope Gelasius declared February 14th a holy day in honor of Valentinus, instead of the pagan god Lupercus. He also adapted some of the pagan celebrations of love to reflect Christian beliefs.

12) For example, as part of the Juno Februata ritual, instead of pulling girls names from boxes, both boys and girls chose the names of martyred saints from a box.

13) Valentine's Day is no longer part of the official liturgical calendar of any Christian church; it was dropped from the Catholic calendar in 1969. Its not a feast, a celebration, or a memorial of any martyrs.

14) The return to more pagan-inspired celebrations of February 14th is not surprising, nor is the overall commercialization of the day, which is now part of a billion-dollar industry. Millions all over the world celebrate V-Day in some fashion, but few do so as a matter of faith

15) I do not personally partake, because I understand the long history and demonic roots of all pagan feasts, but as I said above; draw your own conclusions....

16) more here