Should Valentines Day Be Associated With Christian Faith?
While doing some research on The History of Valentine’s Day, it became obvious that the way in which we recognize and celebrate Valentine’s day in our culture is vastly different from the origins of the day.
In our world today and for several centuries Valentine’s Day has been representative of love and romance. Traditionally gifts of candy, jewelry, stuffed animals, cards, roses and other flowers are the most popular choices of the day. Cupid, with his bow and quiver of arrows and red or pink hearts are a common site around this time of year.
However, tracing back to the earliest celebrations you find that Lupercalia, a festival of the Roman empire was held yearly on the Ides of February, which would be February 15th. And this celebration had very little to do with real love. In fact, history would show that it was based almost entirely on lust. It incorporated animal sacrifices, drunkeness and a sort of “sexual lottery” if you will.
Now in the last few decades, (at least that is when I first began to notice it) Valentine’s Day is sometimes associated with God and the Christian faith, and I really don’t have a problem with it. That is pretty obvious or I would not have created this site.
- Valentine’s Day in our world today is about love; and God is Love.
- Valentine’s Day is about true love; God’s love is absolute and unconditional.
- Valentine’s Day is about expressing your love; “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”
Some church history suggests that the Christian Church, specifically the Roman Catholic church, which was the predominant religion of the Roman empire at the time, proclaimed Valentine’s Day to be a Christian Feast Day in an effort to “christianize” the pagan festival of Lupercalia.
Is it acceptable to link a formerly pagan celebration with God, Jesus and Christianity? I welcome your thoughts.
Filed under: Valentine Gifts
This is an interesting question. Most Christian holidays are strategically placed throughout the year to replace or counter pagan holidays. I’ve never though of Valentine’s day as either Christian or non-Christian, but it doesn’t surprise me that it has pagan roots. I guess my feeling on it would be that it is a good thing for the church to provide a Christian focus for Valentine’s day, or any holiday for that matter, despite its history. Any celebration is what you make of it, so it might as well be about God’s love!
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Many of the traditional aspects of Christmas also have some type of pagan influence – the Christmas tree being the primary example. (I don’t remember reading about trees in the nativity story). I don’t consider Valentine’s day to be a religious holiday, but that certainly doesn’t make it un-Christian!
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Along as ‘Love’ is the focus, I see Valentine’s Day as one of the better holidays. Should it be associated with Christianity?…No, I do not believe Valentines Day is a Christian Holy Day.
No. It is not fair to be like that. We can’t compare Valentines day with Christianity.
Valentines day is for every one. Not for Christian’s alone. I had the same doubt before. But my uncle solved it.
Our God is an awesome God, He reigns from Heaven above. Peace
What better way to celebrate Valentine’s Day than to commit or recommit our lives to Jesus.