OCR Text |
Show FROM ?M TIES Celebration of St. Valentine's Day Is One of the Oldest of Our Customs. St. Valentine's day is the outgrowth of a pagan custom. The feaBt of Lu-percalia, Lu-percalia, which was held on February 15 in honor of the great god Pan, was undoubtedly its origin At this feast the names 0i the virgin daughters of Rome were put in a box and drawn therefrom by the young men and each youth was bound to offer a gift to the maiden who fell to his lot and to make her his partner during the time of the feast. This custom became allied with the name of St. Valentine, probably only through a coincidence in dates. St. Valentine Val-entine was a bishop of Rome during the third century. He was martyred on February 14, A. D. 270. When the-saint the-saint came to be placed in the calendar calen-dar his name was given to the day of his death, and this was made a festival. In the days of quill pens and dear postage the transmission of valentines through the post was an expensive luxury. The amorous swains of that period had to content themselves and their idolized fair ones with thick sheets of gilt-edged letter paper, the first page of each being adorned with a gift Cupid, carefully gummed. With the reduction of the heavy postal charges printed valentines gradually came into use. They gen-, erally consisted or a gaudily colored picture, representing a lovely couple |