The Return of St. Valentine

On February 14^th I wrote about St. Valentine’s Day. Today I’ll do the same, because today is the REAL St. Valentine’s Day.

As I said in February the reason we celebrate love and romance on St. Valentine’s Day is because Geoffrey Chaucer wrote a poem to celebrate the marriage of King Richard II in 1381. His theme was picked up by his great friend and gay courtier Sir John Clanvowe in a poem called “The Book of Cupid, God of Love”.

Richard II’s marriage took place on 2^nd May 1381, the feast day of St. Valentine of Genoa. As I mentioned in February I believe the reason we celebrate Valentine’s Day on the wrong date is because the Catholic Church didn’t want to associate it with the pagan festival of prostitutes called Floralia which was held in Roman times during this week. It was moved to the feast day of a different St. Valentine on 14^th February in 1641.

St. Valentine’s Day is now always associated with Cupid and his arrows of love. I his original persona of Eros he was worshipped as the patron of recreational sex – specifically gay sex. More on this can be found in my earlier post here.

So if you Valentine’s Day plans on 14^th February fell apart you can try again today!