Yesterday I shared a personal Valentine story and that prompted me to wonder how the Valentine Day tradition started. So I searched and found this explanation:
For starters, Saint Valentine is probably not just one man, but rather any of a number of martyred saints named Valentine or Valentinus, derived from the Latin word for valor. According to Christian tradition, all of these Saint Valentines are believed to have been martyred on February 14.
The first Valentinus, Valentine of Rome, was a priest and doctor, who treated even those patients who could not afford to pay him. The second Saint Valentine was beheaded for protecting Christians from the Romans. And the third is Valentine of Terni, a bishop believed killed during the persecution of Emperor Aurelian.
While these saints likely bestowed upon Valentines Day its name, they still do not explain the holiday’s love connection. To understand that, one has to go back even further in history - to the Romans.
Historians believe that the holiday of love derives its origins from the ancient Roman feast of Lupercalia. On February 15, the Romans celebrated the Feast of Lupercus, to honor and thank the wolf god who watched over the Roman shepherds and their flocks.
While Lupercus doesn’t seem to have much to do with romance, there was a number of fertility customs associated with his feast. In one of these rituals, women would put their names on slips of paper in a box, to be drawn out by men. The two would then be coupled up for the duration of the festival - or for the rest of the year in some cases. This fertility-friendly feast gives some clue as to the romantic - or at least procreative - nature of the holiday. But we don’t celebrate Saint Lupercus Day on February 14th. So, how did the Valentine saints become associated with the Roman god?
Legend has it that in the 3rd century, the Roman emperor Claudius II banned marriages to prevent draft dodgers. Only single men had to go into the army - and too many young men were getting married.
A Christian priest named Valentinus of Rome ignored the ban, continuing to officiate marriages in secret. Valentinus was caught and sentenced to death - an order carried out on February 14. Another story tells of a priest named Valentinus who was jailed and later executed for helping Christians. He fell for his jailer’s daughter and sent her plaintiff love notes signed “from your Valentine”.
In the late 5th century, Emperor Gelasius declared February 14th a holy day in honor of Valentinus (probably the first, but perhaps the second), allowing Christianity to adopt some of the love day customs previously associated with paganism.
The traditions were reworked, however, to honor the Christian martyrs. For example, instead of boys pulling girls’ names from boxes, both boys and girls chose names of martyred saints to emulate for the year.
It took nearly nine centuries, until the advent of the Renaissance, for Valentines Day to return to its earlier love-based roots. With Romantic art, poetry and music flourishing, the time was ripe for a celebration of love.
My two older daughters are currently not in a relationship (I have four daughters, 2 in college) so I thought why not treat all my daughters and my wife to dinner. I’m not a good cook, but I’m learning. I prepared soup from Costco, a nice corn chowder, cooked pork roast, baked red potatoes and fried Asparagus. For dessert I served cheese, crackers, red grapes and three pieces of chocolate each.
They all liked the soup the most. Like I said, I’m not a good cook.
I served them like a waiter and let them relax and talk together. They’re girls, they like to talk. After dinner, we played RockBand and then watched a Hugh Grant movie we thought we hadn’t seen but turns out we had seen it back in 1999.
No doubt about this one. Vacations are always significant days for me. Good or bad, vacations stick in our memories like peanut butter.
We just returned from a week long stay at the Marriott in Newport Beach. My wife purchased city passes for all of us which included 3 days at Disneyland, 1 day at the San Diego Zoo, 1 day at Universal studios and 1 day at Seaworld.
The moment that sticks with me the most is the look on my 6 year-old’s face at the end of the California Screamin’ roller coaster ride. I thought I had scarred her for life, but when I asked her how she liked the ride, she simply said she didn’t like the “down” parts. She went on to right the coaster 4 times, at which point I was about ready to puke.
I like the vacations most when we don’t plan things out in advance. This past vacation in California was good and we created some great memories, but in my opinion the days were too structured.
Journaling has so many different facets. Do you journal to be able to look back on your life and remember what you did? Do you keep a journal for the process of journaling–to work out knotty life issues by thinking/writing about them? To stay in touch with yourself and live life more intentionally and fully? To improve your writing? To track progress on your exercise, diet, productivity, or project goals? All of these and more?
There’s tons or research that tells us that physically and emotionally journaling is really good for you. And when the question comes up–do you journal?–the responses I often hear are: Yes I used to, but I don’t any more. Or no, but I wish I did. Sometimes the response is: Yes, I journal and it’s such a powerful part of my life!
The trick is to find what works for you in keeping your journaling fresh and consistent as you need it to be–for whatever your purposes are for journaling.
An association of 30 of the top journal experts (including Christina Baldwin, Kay Adams, Lucia Capacchione, Eric Maisel) have recently joined together–with their goal to offer encouragement, education, and community energy to help you keep a journal–whether a long time journal writer or a newbie. The International Association for Journal Writing (www.IAJW.org) has a library of articles, monthly teleclasses, webinars, encouraging email sent to you, and more. It’s a playground for journal keepers.
Although I had to get in and out of my car during Doug Fabrizio’s interview this morning with David Pinchbeck, author of , 2012 The Return of Quetzocoatl, it was interesting to listen to a non-doomsday approach to 2012, especially after all the media attention given to the 2012 movie. Here’s a short promo on the interview:
SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH (kuer) - NASA’s David Morrison has received thousands of letters from people who are terrified over what 2012 may bring. Morrison says there’s nothing to worry about, but websites dedicated to surviving a coming doomsday and a new feature film have some panicked. For Daniel Pinchbeck the predictions of the Mayan calendar give us an opportunity for a transformation of human consciousness. Wednesday, Doug talks to Pinchbeck, whose book helped introduce the Mayan Calendar to the world.
Let me repeat one line from this promo: “the predictions of the Mayan calendar give us an opportunity for a transformation of human consciousness”
What does “transforming human consciousness” mean to you?
An excellent article appeared in the New York Times yesterday about 2012 and how scientists are saying this is not the end of the world. At least according to NASA and CERN, there is no science to support all the hype.
The article came out in response to last weekend’s top grossing movie at the box office, 2012. Here’s the basic conclusion:
“All of it, astronomers say, is bunk. Most of what’s claimed for 2012 relies on wishful thinking, wild pseudoscientific folly, ignorance of astronomy and a level of paranoia worthy of ‘Night of the Living Dead,’ ” Ed Krupp, director of the Griffith Observatory, in Los Angeles, and an expert on ancient astronomy, wrote in an article in the November issue of Sky & Telescope.
But don’t forget John Cussack’s line in the movie. It went something like this:
When they say there is nothing to worry about, that’s the time to start worrying
Regardless of your personal opinions about 2012, the fact is that this date is now a worldwide phenonmenon. I get that, but I’m not too interested in what may or may not happen in 2012. I’m much more interested in creating my own significant days and hanging out with people who live life to the fullest.
My family and I went to see the movie, 2012, last night. If you haven’t seen it yet, here is a short trailer:
Although I’m not a believer in mass destruction scenarios on 12/21/2012, the movie was fun and it hit the main theroies surrounding 2012 pretty well.
* Super volcano in Yellowstone
* Earth’s core heating up
* Magnetic pole shift
You know, all those “What if” scenarios people love wasting their time on.(To learn more about 2012, I highly recommend The Complete Idiot’s Guide to 2012 by Synthia and Colin Andrews.)
One scene in particular resonated with me and the I Survived 2012 Daily Journal. There is a character in one of the sub-plots who sings on a cruise ship. He hasn’t spoken to his son in many years.
When he finally realizes that time is short, he calls his son, but before he can say he’s sorry and that he loves him, the son’s house explodes.
It’s interesting how hard it is sometimes to simply pick up the phone and tell someone you are sorry. A life lived without regrets is a life well lived.
Or days? This idea hit me one day when I realized I was often thinking of a particular day when I woke up in the mornings. The day just came to me naturally so I thought there must be something significant about the day. So I thought about why I am so interested in this day.
I had just graduated high school and my parents were off on a trip. The day was warm and clear and I had absolutely no plans for the day. I began by washing my car. I was in no hurry. I then went and joined a pick up basketball game outdoors. Later, I called a girl I barely knew and we went out on a date. There’s more, but I won’t bore you with the details.
The conclusion I came to is that this seemingly normal day stands out in my memory as spectacular because it was completely spontaneous. Another way of defining this is that I was completely in the moment.
What’s sad is how few of these spontaneous days I’ve had in my life. But now that I’ve figured out the formula, I’m getting better at it. One day I climbed Mt. Fuji on a whim and on another day I hiked the grand canyon with absolutely no pre-meditation. Both are now firmly set in my repertoire of “perfect days.”
Have you heard the expression, “The days are long, but the years are short?” I’ve often wondered why it seems time is speeding up. I just thought it was part of getting older, but when I started learning about the Mayan civilization and their calendars, I was introduced to an entirely different concept of time.
The Mayans used 17 to 20 calendars that tracked cycles. These cycles range from the earth’s rotation around the sun to agricultural cycles that track insects. Here’s a blurb from Wikipedia that explains how the Mayan see time:
The repetition of the various calendric cycles, the natural cycles of observable phenomena, and the recurrence and renewal of death-rebirth imagery in their mythological traditions were important and pervasive influences upon Maya societies. This conceptual view, in which the “cyclical nature” of time is highlighted, was a pre-eminent one, and many rituals were concerned with the completion and re-occurrences of various cycles. As the particular calendaric configurations were once again repeated, so too were the “supernatural” influences with which they were associated. Thus it was held that particular calendar configurations had a specific “character” to them, which would influence events on days exhibiting that configuration. Divinations could then be made from the auguries associated with a certain configuration, since events taking place on some future date would be subject to the same influences as its corresponding previous cycle dates. Events and ceremonies would be timed to coincide with auspicious dates, and avoid inauspicious ones.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_calendar
When I think of the Gregorian calendar we use today, I see time as circular and linear, but not necessarily cyclical. I feel the circular nature of time in the weeks and years and the linear nature of time as the constant progression forward.
I am intriqued with the Mayan concept of time and I wonder if we were to see time as cyclical, if this sensation that time is speeding up would lessen or even dissapear.
I don’t believe that time is speeding up or slowing down, but that our perception of time changes as we age. What I try to do to slow down time is to be more spontaneous and in the moment. Kids do this naturally, but adults have to work at it. I also like taking my watch off on the weekends.
