Valentine’s Day: ancient practices and upcoming events

Rita Offutt, Editor

This year, Valentine’s Day falls on a Monday, helping La Salle students to ring in the fifth week of classes and celebrate their relationships. While there is a lot of controversy surrounding Valentine’s Day, especially regarding its commercialization, there have been few accurate accounts of the history of the holiday. In 2011, the National Public Radio (NPR) published an article about the origins of Valentine’s Day. According to the article:

“From Feb. 13 to 15, the Romans celebrated the feast of Lupercalia…The Roman romantics ‘were drunk. They were naked,’ says Noel Lenski, a historian at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Young women would actually line up for the men to hit them, Lenski says. They believed this would make them fertile. The brutal fete included a matchmaking lottery, in which young men drew the names of women from a jar. The couple would then be, um, coupled up for the duration of the festival — or longer, if the match was right.”

Despite legends about Cupid, most people who celebrate Valentine’s Day are doing so to celebrate preexisting love. For La Salle students, there is no better opportunity than in the City of Brotherly Love. Across the Philadelphia area, businesses and social hubs are ramping up for the holiday. In the spirit of the origins of Valentine’s Day, readers are encouraged to engage in a different type of matchmaking. Listed below are 10 different holiday attractions; readers are invited to close their eyes, randomly select a number, and consider participating in that activity. Consider it fate! Or, feel free to peruse the list at your leisure, and determine if any of the activities feel like the right way to celebrate your best friend, romantic partner or even yourself! A list of upcoming events can be found below the picture of Cupid.

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