BEARTRACKS • IN-DEPTH 7February 7, 20146 IN-DEPTH • BEARTRACKS February 7, 2014

Sweet-Heart’s Day- Single’s Awareness Day- Valentine’s Day: The Holiday for All

What Do You Traditionally Do on Valentines Day?What Girls Prefer for Gifts:

Chocolate: • Even if she isn’t a Chocoholic, who doesn’t love a giant heart filled with Chocolate?Flowers: • You can never go wrong with flowers on Valentine’s Day, unless they are daffodils. What were you thinking?Puppy/ Kitten: • What’s better than some-thing to cuddle with while you’re away?Love Story Serenade: • Best way to win a girl’s heart is advice from Taylor Swift’s mu-sic video; Love Story.Diamonds: • ‘Nuff saidGrow-A-Boyfriend: • Perfect match is avail-able at retail stores. (They’re real. We swear. We checked)

What Boys Prefer for Gifts:

Video Games

Single’s Awareness Day (S.A.D.): We’re Here for YouYou’re not alone, you have your cat. Here is how to get through your S.A.D.:

Ice cream makes every-thing better. Even your broken heart.

Who needs Valentine’s Day cards when you can have Single’s Awareness Day cards? They’re real, we promise.

Curl up with your cat and watch some tear-jerker romance movies and cry to your heart’s desire. (Don’t worry, we won’t tell.)

“Every Valentines Day since I was 4, I stuff my face with heart-shaped pizza.”

-Hunter Mruz,12

“In my opinion, you can show someone how much you love them any day. You don’t need a special day for it.”

-Alexa Hilgenfeld,12

“Put on my footie pajamas, eat junk food, and watch sappy love stories.”

-Melissa Throener,12

“I always eat chocolate, and lots of it while watching Netflix.”

-Allie Anderson,10

“I make Valentines Day cards and heart-shaped cookies. I love to bake.”

-Kelly Conn,12

By Sarah Van HornValentine’s Day (n.): Feb-

ruary 14th, a day to exchange valentines or a card or gift that is usually given to someone loved by another.

Valentine’s Day (n.): A day to celebrate martyrdom and used to deter away from the pagan holiday, Lupercalia.

Lupercalia, the Pagan fer-tility festival is celebrated on Feb. 15th. After a feast, a sac-rifice to Faunus the fertility god and various other celebrations all of the single women in the town would put their names in an urn. Next, all of the single men in the town would draw

names out of the vase. Who ever’s name they draw is who they will be “matched” with for the next year. Often times that pairing would end in a mar-riage.

Lupercalia survived into the rise of Christianity at the end of the 5th century. Then was later deemed “un christian” by the Catholic church when Pope Gelasius declared Feb. 14th St. Valentines Day in honor of two martyred Saints both un-der the name of “Valentine”.

The first Valentine was a Ro-man priest who served during the 3rd century. Valentine was the pope at the same time that Emperor Claudius II was ruling Rome.

Claudius same to the deci-sion that single men were bet-ter soldiers because they had no family to live for and would die more willingly for the sake of their country as opposed to those who would have a family to leave behind. Marriage was outlawed for young men.

Realizing the injustice of this new decree Valentine made the decision to marry young couples in secret. When Clau-dius discovered Valentine’s doings he put Valentine to his death.

The second Valentine to lose his life for love was killed in an attempt to help other Chris-tians escape Roman prisons. According to legend before

Valentine’s death the prison warden’s daughter would visit him in his solitary cell.

Alleged, he fell in love with her and shortly before his death he wrote a love letter ending with, “From your Valentine”.

Although Valentine may have been the first to start the trend of love notes ending with, “From your Valentine” the first recorded Valentine’s Day card was written in 1415 by Charles Duke of Orleans to his wife while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London following his capture at the Battle of Agin-court.

Americans began exchang-ing hand made valentines in the early 1700s. In the 1840s

Esther A. Howland began sell-ing the first mass produced val-entines in America. Howland, known as the “Mother of Val-entines” made elaborate cards complete with lace, poems and even pictures.

Today, according to the Greeting Card Association an estimated 1 billion Valentines Day cards are sent out each year, making Valentine’s Day the second largest card send-ing holiday. All thanks to love love sick soldiers, captive dukes and a woman with an eye for romance.

Information from: History.com, AmericanCatholic.org and ManyGods.org.

Valentine’s Day Holds a Surprise in the Past

IDNC_A2_Valentine’s Day_BLA#1

Feb. 7, 2014, In-Depth

Kiley GilbertEmily BledsoeSarah Van Horn