The History of: Crimson wave, Valentines Day

We have had that loved-up mentality all month if you can’t tell. Check out the past “Club’s Choice” for some valentines inspo to see what we are talking about. We know that some couples are kinky and adventurous when it comes to Valentine's Day. Maybe some of you are feeling like daredevils this season! Put your plan into action, COVID year two is not going any easier on us. Now is the time to make magic happen. We thought there weren't many shocks left for us to have but surprises hit you all the time. Learning about Valentine’s Day's origin story was a little scarring, slightly unnerving and totally unrelated to the cute cupid and roses we associate with it today. Whips and chains and sacrifice sounds good in the movies (kinda) but practicing that in real life in the way that we just learned about it sounds torturous. Lets begin. So the Romans, famous for their engineering and paganism, celebrated the feast of Lupercalia Feb 13-15. The occasion was a way to purify the city, ward of evil spirits and promote fertility. Is it really a surprise that some of these festivities were performed naked? Not really, considering baby making was a primary portion of the event and paganism was not as stringent as catholicism. Other than baby making and promoting baby making, they sacrificed a dog and a goat then proceeded to whip women with the deceased's hide. *proceeds to shudder* The kicker is, women would line up to be whipped willingly because it was said to make them fertile. During the beatings and smells of burning flesh, there was a love lottery where men picked a woman’s name from a jar and they shacked up for the holiday. The whole ordeal seemed really kinky and free for all but in that romanticised and glamorized kind of way. Fast forward to the colonization of Rome in the name of Christianity. If you read our Christmas or Thanksgiving blog then you know the Catholic crusade across the world pretty much tried to decimate all other cultures in favor of the one by mixing and slowly changing the narrative. Although some historians state there is no evidence of the purposeful erasure of the pagan tradition, if you look at the catholic religion or any history of the places they conquered it's a long and bloody battle between the natives and catholics. In A.D 496 Pope Gelasius I declared a holiday on the 14th for the Martyred saint Valentine. So Valentine's day moved away from the boudoir lusty holiday to a tamed down celebration of a saint. In American it wasn’t until the early 20th century that we saw the holiday’s rise in national prominence. The industrial revolution was a huge era of manufacturing, commerce and probably when we expedited capitalism which pretty much sums up the holiday nowadays. In 1913 Hallmark produced their first line of Valentine’s Day cards and the rest is history. Although for many of us it's about love we can’t help but feel pressured to get gifts and show your love through spending money. How do you spend this holiday? Are you into buying gifts and going to a fancy dinner for Valentine's Day? Or are you and your significant other celebrating your love in other ways?