Valentine's Day. The holiday derived from one of the saint's feasts to commemorate the life and martyrdom of a Roman Christian about whom even the church of his contemporaries knew nothing. Yes, Valentinus the Presbyter is just some random fellow the Catholic Church lumped in with other random fellows who were notable only for being clergy in a time and place when it was unpopular to be monotheist in general. It wasn't until the late 15th century CE that anyone attempted to ascribe a story to Valentine, so somebody shoehorned in an account of how the guy got nabbed by Roman authorities for secretly helping young Christians get married. Seeing as the same document, The Nuremberg Chronicle, tries to fit Bible stories into official world history, we can assume that its authors had motives other than the preservation of historical fact in mind. From there, Valentine's story got tossed around the various channels of suspect history and religious tradition until people started to market romantic products to impressionable youths under the guise of religious virtue. All this in mind, it's still no picnic to be alone on Valentine's Day. Even if the official holiday of love has a dubious origin, people choose to make it real and so it invades our lives yearly. But don't worry, you bachelors and bachelorettes. The truth is, we're all alone. Fundamentally.
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