Building on the Foundation

  Today, much of the world marks February 14th as St. Valentine’s Day, the “Hallmark holiday” of love, roses, chocolates, and poems. Oh, and don’t forget Cupid, the winged baby who shoots arrows into the hearts of men and women, causing them to fall in love. But where did this holiday come from? The name comes from three fellows the Catholic Church dubbed “St. Valentine,” all of whom are thought to have been beheaded. Legends and folktales notwithstanding, The Catholic Encyclopedia confesses that virtually nothing is known about any of them. Clearly, the name has nothing to do with the day. It’s a disguise for something else. As for the February date, the ancient Romans celebrated a fertility festival called Lupercalia about the same time, on February 15th, at which they honored their deities Juno and Faunus. Cupid, one of the chief symbols of Valentine’s Day, was the Roman god of erotic love and sexual attraction, a counterpart of the Greek Eros (from which comes the word “erotic...