The beginning of the 90s of the XX century in Russia was the time of the appearance of a holiday dedicated to all lovers. The celebration, called Valentine's Day, with its origins dates back to ancient Western customs. There are several versions of the origin of this holiday.
Some historians suggest that Valentine's Day, celebrated on February 14th, became a Christian substitute for the pagan cult of Lupercalia. Lupercalia is a special Roman fertility celebration in honor of the goddess of love and the pagan deity Faunus. This day in ancient Rome was celebrated on February 15th. In accordance with pagan customs, animals were sacrificed during the festival, the skin of which was later used to make pests. Naked women were whipped with these scourges so that the goddess of love would give painless childbirth and healthy children.
There is a version that at the end of the 5th century, Pope Gelasius I, who tried to ban Lupercalia, introduced the celebration of all lovers in memory of the early Christian martyr Valentina (but this conjecture is only an assumption, not confirmed by concrete facts).
At present, there is no exact information about the life of the person in whose honor Valentine's Day is named. There are several versions of Valentine's biography. The main essence of such stories is the story that the saint secretly from the pagan authorities married the newlyweds. However, at present, the Roman Catholic Church itself does not recognize the date of February 14th as the memory of the martyr Valentine for the lack of accurate information from the life of the alleged saint. In 1969, the celebration of the memory of the martyr Valentine was completely abolished by the Catholic Church.
In the Orthodox calendar on February 14th there is also no holiday dedicated to Valentine. Orthodox people honor the memory of several martyrs Valentinov on other dates.
Thus, Valentine's Day celebrations currently have nothing to do with the Christian calendar tradition. The Orthodox calendar has its own special holiday dedicated to the day of family, love and fidelity - a day commemorating the holy noble princes Peter and Fevronia (July 8). This day is currently considered the day of all lovers for Orthodox people. However, it is worth considering that the Church does not prohibit giving joy to her relatives and on other days, it is only necessary to understand that this should not be timed to coincide with holidays foreign to Russian culture.
An Orthodox person must understand that giving joy to his beloved is possible any day, because this is a natural need of a human loving soul. To the best of this, if there is a tradition in families to congratulate their “halves” on February 14th, then this practice can be abandoned. The main thing is not to attribute to it a special sacred meaning. Therefore, February 14th is the usual day on which everyone can give their warmth to their loved one. True, it is advisable to do this on the 15th and 16th of February, and on other days of the calendar year.
