By Wole Olujobi
“Forget not in your speed, Antonius, to touch Calpurnia, for our elders say the barren touched in this holy chase, shake off their sterile curse,” decreed Roman General and tribune, Julius Caesar, who had positioned his barren wife Calpurnia to stand on Mark Anthony’s way as the annual Roman fertility ritual got underway on the Feast of the Lupercalia.
Even though a colossus that betrode the entire world, the spiritual and cultural significance of the Lupercalia in the lives of Romans was not lost on this totalitarian Roman Army General, as Caesar stayed glued to seize the temples of the gods in his majesty to preside over the affairs of Romans.
On the feast of the Lupercalia, young noblemen were arrayed naked on a race course through the streets, carrying strips of leather with which they pretended to strike all the people in their way. Barren women who wanted children would stand in their path and hold out their hands to be struck, since they believed that this would bring then what they wanted (children).
The feast of Lupercalia, the festival of fertility in Roman culture, which turned out to be the precursor to Valentine’s Day, was marked by tradition and rituals for the procreation health need of the Roman society, yet it marked the beginning of the rebellion against tradition and culture that was the heart of the clash between Roman culture and the new religion (christianity), which was taking a firm root in the world’s first church, the Roman Catholic Church.
The most daring move by the church was the period that Emperor Claudius 11 held forte in the Roman royal court that awed the world. But then the spirit of the new religion seized a Roman Catholic priest, Valentine, who stood to the face of Emperor Claudius to challenge his authority and the place of tradition and culture in Romans’ lives.
For Valentine, it was against the Canon law to challenge the authority of the church. And also for Emperor Claudius, Rome would not abandon culture and tradition for the new religion.
Now the Feast of Lupercalia, also known as Lupercal, which is also the origin of Valentine’s Day, was a pagan holiday
in the middle of February, between February 13 and February 15. It was an holiday to celebrate fertility. Men would strip naked and sacrifice a goat and dog to purify the city of Rome, promoting health and fertility.
Lupercalia was a full month festival before the Ides of March (March 15). Therefore, within the one month period, no Christian religious activity of any sort must hold in the entire Rome as a mark of respect for the traditional Feast of Lupercalia commencing from February 13. But Valentine would not allow any let up in the resolve of the church to challenge the authority of the tradition and culture of Rome.
Emperor Claudius 11 warned Valentine against this heresy and and issued arrest threat as punishment for challenging the authority of Roman tradition. During the one month period marking the Feast of Lupercalia, no other event, particularly that of the new religion, must hold. But Valentine and his disciples would not accept that.
Among the new converts into the new religion were young men and women who had recruited themselves into the Army of Jesus Christ led by Valentine and who were bent on challenging the authority of Emperor and the tradition of Rome.
To assist Emperor Claudius II in his resolve against the church, he banned marriage because he thought married men were bad soldiers. Valentine felt this was unfair, so he broke the rules and arranged marriages in secret.
As a direct affront and assault on the tradition and the palace, Valentine and his disciples chose the same period (February 13 and 15) coinciding with the Feast of Lupercal for a mass wedding among these disciples against the authority of the Palace. When Claudius found out, Valentine was imprisoned and sentenced to death, as Claudius, drawing from the authority of his office and exercising the power of his estate, seized Valentine and hurled him into jail. Inside his cell, Valentine agonised, and his disciples wailed, but that would not break their spirits, as they resolved not to bow to the authority of the Palace and tradition.
Buoyed by the audacity of the church, Valentine spoke from his jail and sent holy blessings to the couples in their connubial consummation in defiance of Emperor Claudius’ decree.
Despite remonstrations from Claudius’ daughter, Emperor Claudius sentenced Valentine to death by beheading. Valentine paid the supreme price for his faith in Christ. For his belief in the primacy of Jesus in His Holiness, Valentine in death was consecrated and canonised on February 14 into the Order of Holiness and Sainthood from which the annual celebration of St Valentine’s Day on February 14 emerged.
In the late 5th Century, Pope Gelasius I outlawed Lupercalia and designated the celebration of St. Valentine’s Day on February 14 to replace the pagan holiday of the Feast of Lupercalia.
In essence, Valentine’s Day, in its real form and content, in the past or even now, ought to be a religious event marking the belief of the adherents of the Christian faith and love in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour. It is to celebrate the sainthood of the ancient Roman Catholic priest, St Valentine. It is also the celebration of love between married couples, particularly those who suffered persecutions during courtship based on sectarian sentiments.
However, like the Lawrence Anini’s many Benin City’s hijacks, modern day Valentine’s Day is very much a product of the various industries that benefit from it – namely, stationery, chocolate, flowers, and jewelry companies.
Every year, billions of dollars are spent on these items, even in countries where Western holidays are frowned upon or outlawed have seen an upsurge in Valentine’s Day gifts in recent years. It is now a daylight hijack by multinationals and private individuals who cherish commerce and lechery over the spiritual essence of the Christian festival of faith and love of Christ.
Even in Saudi Arabia, where the holiday is illegal, there is a thriving black market for red roses and heart-shaped chocolates in February, all in the celebration of the body to spite the sanctity of the soul as the temple of Christ.
The bastardisation of the purport of Valentine’s Day (from the deep sense of the observance and reverence for the pious decencies of the holy cross to the festival of lechery and celebration of debauchery in the world) speaks loudly about the place of morals in the church and the society at large.
From the red districts of Allen Avenue, Toyin and Ayilara streets in Lagos, Maitama in Abuja to the hearts of Benin, Ibadan, Ports Harcourt and in fact across the country, where Esthers, Catherines, Deborahs (now Debby), Marys (the supposed mother of Jesus) make a living from the auctioning of their bodies to Matthews, Josephs, Andrews, Peters, James and Johns, the new reality in many parts of the world is that Valentine’s Day marks the annual preparation for the misfortunes of unborn children, who even before their birth, are already orphaned.
It is also the annual festival to breed and raise a large pool of criminals under city bridges to menace the society. Ask the devotees the meaning of Valentine’s Day and they tell you Valentine’s Day is a day licensed for a free and violent sex. For them, Jesus Christ and His Cross have no place in today’s Valentine’s Day. Even Saint Valentine himself remains an anonymity!
To stress the rot in Valentine’s Day celebration, Pastor Mike Bamiloye quipped: “Many men will sleep on the same beds with ghosts tonight” celebrating Valentine’s Day, in what is seen as a love by death sealed in hell.
In road accidents, drowning at the beaches and ritual murders, several devotees of Valentine’s Day lost their lives to what they do not even understand, as the fertility essence of the Feast of Lupercal, the precursor of Valentine’s Day, looms in the shadow of fatality.
For the married couples and those who survived persecutions and other forms of hard times before sealing your love in holy matrimony in the true spirit of martyrdom as espoused by Saint Valentine, happy Valentine’s Day. May you live long to celebrate more of Lovers’ Day in good health, peace in your homes and progress at work.
* Olujobi, a journalist and politician, writes from Ado-Ekiti
