Ok so today I found myself with some spare time and decided to watch the movie Valentine's Day. Please don't judge me for my taste in movies, I thought this one might be a good no thinking evening flick, which it was. I wouldn't rate it as the best film I have seen but still worth a watch on a quiet evening. During the film I learnt something new, which was, aside from a few funny one liners and a laugh out loud funny line from Julia Roberts referring to her role in Pretty Woman, the origin of Valentines Day.
Now in the film it was told that there was a law in Ancient Rome passed that prohibited young men from getting married in order to increase the army of Rome, however there was a priest, Valentine, who secretly married young men and women despite this law. He was eventually caught and executed on 14 February, hence the date for Valentines day. I found this interesting and so I decided to do a little further digging (not too much as it was getting late and my interest was waning due to my desire to sleep) and discovered that while this story could not be substantiated in historical fact (I didn't do a full historical search, just ten minutes on Google) it is the generally accepted story of the origin of Valentines Day. This is of course not taking into account the fact that there were two Valentines recorded as living at the same time and that Saint Valentine is linked to both individuals, who may or may not be the same person. However it is a nice clear cut version which is easy to remember and given people's trust in Hollywood always presenting an accurate portrayal of history, I am sure it will be the only known version of the story in years to come!
If you want to read more about Saint Valentine, here are the links that I discovered in my ten minute Google search - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentine%27s_Day and http://www.novareinna.com/festive/saintval.html.
So far I have learnt something new each day!
Now in the film it was told that there was a law in Ancient Rome passed that prohibited young men from getting married in order to increase the army of Rome, however there was a priest, Valentine, who secretly married young men and women despite this law. He was eventually caught and executed on 14 February, hence the date for Valentines day. I found this interesting and so I decided to do a little further digging (not too much as it was getting late and my interest was waning due to my desire to sleep) and discovered that while this story could not be substantiated in historical fact (I didn't do a full historical search, just ten minutes on Google) it is the generally accepted story of the origin of Valentines Day. This is of course not taking into account the fact that there were two Valentines recorded as living at the same time and that Saint Valentine is linked to both individuals, who may or may not be the same person. However it is a nice clear cut version which is easy to remember and given people's trust in Hollywood always presenting an accurate portrayal of history, I am sure it will be the only known version of the story in years to come!
If you want to read more about Saint Valentine, here are the links that I discovered in my ten minute Google search - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentine%27s_Day and http://www.novareinna.com/festive/saintval.html.
So far I have learnt something new each day!
Wow - how romantic! I wonder what you will learn next? Keep writing - I am enjoying reading!
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