Monday, March 8, 2010

Tuesday Trivia - My Valentine

I have decided to participate in Tuesday Trivia on I Refuse to Recede. I hope to make this a regular thing, perhaps alternating between this blog and my other blog, The Converted Kitchen, which I will officially be opening on Wednesday. Today's Trivia will be about St. Valentine who shares a name with my newest pet.
You have already been introduced to the newest member of our family. He was one of my 14 Valentines Day gifts. I had considered naming him after pagan God, or a mythical figure like I had done with my other Cocktails. They were named Arther and Gwen, and those names fit them perfect.

Arther was a very proud bird, only allowing the most dominant member of the family that was present to handle him. Gwen was a bit shy, but beautiful and I think she might have been having a love affair with my husband's left ear.

Like I said, I wanted to give our newest bird a name along the same lines, but I felt to guilty getting all of these gifts, while my children, who had been begging for their own pet for so long, were getting nothing. So I decided to make our bird a family pet, and to make it official I let the children pick his name.

Because the most exciting thing happening in their lives at the time was their school Valentine's Day parties, they chose to name him Valentine, and the name seems to fit him well. He loves to cuddle and gives kisses and sing us his love songs.

So today's trivia is about St. Valentine. I wanted to learn about how the holiday started and who St. Valentine actually was. The answer was more interesting than I expected, in the fact that nobody actually knows, yet we still celebrate the holiday every year.

I learned that the Catholic Feast of St. Valentine is celebrated on February 14th. So that gives us some basis for a Holiday, but who is this Saint. We know of one Catholic Saints was buried at Via Flaminia on February 14th, but absolutely nothing else is known about him or what he has to do with romance. Even the Catholics don't know that. It is not even known whether the holiday celebrates just one Saint, or many with the same name.

The tradition of Valentines Day being associated with romance began in the middle ages. In my opinion, I think this might have been when those who snuck off to celebrate the Beltane rituals later in the year began choosing and courting their partners, but that is just my opinion.

It is funny that their is so much mystery behind a holiday that is so commonly celebrated without question. Interesting, don't you think?

Blessed Be

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