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Center
for Family Therapy
is offering a FREE one-hour
private therapy consultation.
Thursday thru Saturday,
February 12th-14th from 12-8pm
• Find out what therapy is all about
• Couples, families, & individuals invited
• Identify strengths, needs, areas for growth
and change
Walk-ins welcome!
The Center for Family
Therapy is an affordable
counseling agency staffed
with graduate intern
counselors from the Marriage
and Family Therapy program
at the College of Education,
University of Oregon.
Conte Celebrate
Your
Relationships!
For information or to make an appointment, call
(541) 346-3296.
Celebrate your
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Tuesday-Friday
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Thursday Feb. 12 • Free
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Saturday Feb. 14 • $3
Valentine's Day
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(541) 344-8600 • 1626
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Holiday's history rooted
in several traditional myths
The commercialization
of Valentine’s Day in the
U.S. dates to the 1840s
By Brittney Lively
Freelance Reporter
As Valentine's Day approaches, im
ages of Cupids, love arrows and boxes
of chocolates have quickly begun to ap
pear. Most of these Valentine's Day
icons are more than a way to seduce a
special someone — they also stem
from old traditions.
The holiday known today as Valen
tine's Day is surrounded by many
myths, and nobody is certain of the ac
tual events that led to the creation of the
holiday. One legend says that Valen
tine's Day evolved from Lupercalia a
festival beginning during the third cen
tury in Rome that celebrated the fertility
of soil and women.
"It was a custom that young men
and women would draw lots to see
who they might marry," history Profes
sor Matthew Dennis said.
These men and women would then
spend the next year as partners, and in
some places, the men would wear their
valentines' names on their sleeves,
which is believed to be where the say
ing "wearing his heart on his sleeve"
originated.
Some also think that a priest by the
name of Valentine secretly continued
marrying young lovers despite a com
mand from Emperor Claudius banning
marriage because single men per
formed better as soldiers. When he was
caught and put in jail, he fell in love
with the jailer's daughter, and before his
death, he allegedly wrote her a note
signed "From Your Valentine"
A Turkish bishop named Valen
tine was also martyred at this time,
so it is unknown who the day is re
ally named after.
In Norman French, a language spo
ken in Normandy during the Middle
Ages, the word "galantine" sounds like
Valentine and means gallant or lover.
"This resemblance may have caused
people to think of St. Valentine as the
special saint of lovers," according to the
1998 World Book encyclopedia.
In A.D. 498, Pope Gelasius declared
Feb. 14 as St. Valentine's Day because
early spring is the time of love, and this
day is near the beginning of many
birds' mating season.
"When American settlers came to the
New World to establish the United
"I miss the days of little
cut-out valentines in
grade school. At my
school, we had to give
one to everyone so
nobody felt left out."
Judy McGuire
Seattle Weekly romance columnist
States, they took some customs with
them, but by the 19th century, virtually
no one practiced them," Dennis said.
People began changing their customs.
"By the middle of the 18th century it
was common for friends and lovers in
all social classes to exchange small to
kens of affection or handwritten notes,"
according to http://www.historychan
nel.com. "By the end of the century,
printed cards began to replace written
letters because of improvements in
printing technology."
The holiday really began to gain mo
mentum in America around the 1840s,
when new publishing houses were con
structed, and Esther A. Howland began
to sell the first mass-produced valen
tines in America.
"It was a trend, and people embraced
it" Dennis said. "A valentine used to be
a person with whom you had a roman
tic link, but it increasingly became the
card or thing you sent to that person."
These mass-produced valentines be
gan the tradition of sending holiday
cards in the mail, which later gave way
to the Christmas card.
"An estimated 1 billion valentine
cards are sent each year, making Valen
tine's Day the second largest card-send
ing holiday of the year," according to
the History Channel Web site
Cupid has become associated
with the holiday because he was the
son of Venus, the goddess of love
and beauty. During his time, Cupid
was not a small flying child who
would shoot lovers with arrows to
make them fall deeply in love.
"Cupid transformed from an adult
male figure who could be vicious
sometimes and is seen as a cherub,"
Dennis said.
This transformation of Cupid
shows how the American rendition
of the holiday has become more
gradually centered on women and
children. At school, children often
have Valentine's Day parties where
they eat cupcakes or other sweets
and deliver valentines to one anoth
er in the celebration of friendship.
"1 miss the days of little cut-out
valentines in grade school," said Judy
McGuire, a romance columnist for the
Seattle Weekly. "At my school, we had
to give one to everyone so nobody felt
left out."
Women tend to buy the majority of
valentines each year.
"As far as I can tell, it's always been a
money-making scheme for business
es," said McGuire. "But hey, any day
that celebrates being nice is OK by me."
With quick, effortless Valentine's Day
cards and trinkets to send, it may seem
that the holiday has morphed from a
love-centered tradition into a one that
is a little more consumer-oriented.
"In many ways (Valentine's Day)
hasn't changed as much as we
think," Dennis said. "Without com
mercialism we probably wouldn't
have the holiday at all."
Brittney Lively is a freelance reporter
for the Emerald.
Cultural differences abound
in Valentine’s celebrations
Lovers in Australia enjoy
warm weather while ‘street
Romeos' court in India
By Emma Juhlin
Freelance Reporter
Je t'aime, suki desu, ich liebe dich.
Love may be the international lan
guage, but when it comes to Valen
tine's Day everybody says "I love
you" in his or her own way.
Around the world, many people
celebrate Valentine's Day in the tra
ditional Western fashion by dining
out with their sweethearts or send
ing them a box of chocolates. How
ever, many cultures put a spin on the
holiday with variations on tradition
al dating habits and gifts.
Charlie Quirk, a student from Aus
tralia, said the only difference between
America's version of the holiday and
Australia's is the weather.
"At home the hottest month is
February," Quirk said. "1 don't know
what the temperature is, but it feels
like it cracks 92 degrees every day.
Every Valentine's Day function I've
been involved with has involved
something outside."
The warm weather allows couples
to take advantage of dating venues
that might elude February daters in
the Pacific Northwest. Quirk said
some popular Valentine's dates
include going to the beach, having a
picnic or dining at an open-air
restaurant on the river.
"Probably the biggest one that
comes to mind is the tradition of go
ing to an outdoor cinema," Quirk
said. "They are great fun. There are
heaps of couples there all year
round, but on Valentine's Day every
"Valentines are only given
from the girl to the boy
(in Japan). In the past,
girls didn't come up to
guys, but Valentine's Day
was one day of the
year they did."
Yuka Kobayashi
University alumna
person there is in a couple."
In Japan, University alumna Yuka
Kobayashi said the Valentine's Day
tradition is to be untraditional.
"Valentines are only given from
the girl to the boy," Kobayashi said.
"In the past, girls didn't come up to
guys, but Valentine's Day was one
day of the year they did."
However, Kobayashi said girls are
not left empty-handed. On White
Day, or,March 14, hoys who received
Valentines a month earlier give a
similar gift back to their admirer.
"The candy companies started it,"
Kobayashi said of White Day. "It was a
good chance to sell more chocolate"
Japan started celebrating the hol
iday in 1958, and Kobayashi says it
is primarily commercial.
"It's just like Christmas — how it
started doesn't matter," Kobayashi
said. "It's an excuse to sell."
Like Japan, India only recently
added Valentine's Day to its holiday
calendar. According to BBC News
correspondent Vijay Rana, India be
gan celebrating the holiday a
decade ago.
"Before that, hardly anyone cele
brated Valentine's Day in India.
Purists dubbed it as another deca
dent influence of the West," Rana
wrote in an article.
Valentine's Day specials air on In
dian television, and love letter-writ
ing competitions are held, Rana
said. Another modern trend is the
street Romeo.
"Weeks before Valentine's Day,
street Romeos appear everywhere,"
Rana said. "Many of them pretend
to enact the Bollywood (Indian
movie industry) style boy-meets
girl stories that often degenerate
into verbal abuse."
Emma Juhlin is a freelance reporter
for the Emerald.