Some puppy love for Valentine's Day!
A slideshow v-day / anniversary card
HIGHER RES, JUST PIX
puppies etc for vday slideshow
LOWER RES BUT FANCIER
A couple of tidbits about St. Valentine and St. Valentine's day.
Its not well known, but the whole tradition of courtly, romantic love in the west came via the Islamic East. Crusaders brought back romantic stories and poems from the East, and this greatly influenced the concepts of chivalry, romantic love, etc. in the West
So this info from the Wiki article on the day.For this was on seynt Volantynys day
The first recorded association of Valentine's Day with romantic love is in Parlement of Foules (1382) by Geoffrey Chaucer:[5]
- Whan euery bryd comyth there to chese [choose] his make [mate].
This poem was written to honor the first anniversary of the engagement of King Richard II of England to Anne of Bohemia[6]. A treaty providing for a marriage was signed on May 2, 1381.[7] (When they were married eight months later, he was 13 or 14. She was 14.)
On the liturgical calendar, May 2 is the saints' day for Valentine of Genoa. This St. Valentine was an early bishop of Genoa who died around AD 307.[8][9] Readers incorrectly assumed that Chaucer was referring to February 14 as Valentine's Day. However, mid-February is an unlikely time for birds to be mating in England.[10]
Chaucer's Parliament of Foules is set in a fictional context of an old tradition, but in fact there was no such tradition before Chaucer. The speculative explanation of sentimental customs, posing as historical fact, had their origins among eighteenth-century antiquaries, notably Alban Butler, the author of Butler's Lives of Saints, and have been perpetuated even by respectable modern scholars. Most notably, "the idea that Valentine's Day customs perpetuated those of the Roman Lupercalia has been accepted uncritically and repeated, in various forms, up to the present"[11]
In the Islamic world
In Persian culture (Iran) Sepandarmazgan
is a day for love, which is on 29 Bahman in the jalali solar calendar. The corresponding date in the Gregorian calendar is 17 February. Sepandarmazgan was observed in the Great Persian Empire in the 20th century BC hundreds of years before its acknowledgement by western world.This day is currently celebrated semi-secretly in Iran despite some restrictions made by government; young Persian boys and girls may be seen on this day going out and buying gifts and celebrating.
In Saudi Arabia in 2008, religious police banned the sale of all Valentine's Day items, telling shop workers to remove any red items, as the day is considered an un-Islamic holiday. This ban created a black market of roses and wrapping paper, according to a BBC News article.[26]
My thoughts
Rites of passage are important. For some, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, etc., have such meaning, and its well that they celebrate them. Had I married a woman for whom V-Day was a big deal, I'd certainly not have been stupid and stubborn enough to get on my high horse with her about it, and I certainly don't pull on my umbrage suit for Mother's Day, etc.Tess and I prefer to celebrate the rites of passage and markings of time which are unique to our lives, as with our recent aufklaerung.
I am troubled by the commercialization not just of this holiday, but of all of them. We're a society which is so ready to substitute money and merchandise for meaning. Its much easier to buy someone something nice than to be nice to them!
Finally, happy anniversary!
A pair of old friends from "real life" along with D&B are celebrating anniversaries. I rejoice with them/you and wish them/you all the best. I doubt (hope)
my "real life" friends aren't reading this blog... they'd need depends (they're VERY vanilla albeit very dear people) but they may have come across the version of this post I put on Multiply.
2 comments:
Admittedly, I look forward to Valentines Day for one reason and one reason only: my mother always sends a nice CHECK in the card she mails to me. Yesssssssss, I am extremely superficial, but only somewhat materialistic. LOL
*grin*
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