Please Don't Be Mine

I could rant about a lot of things right now. What happened in homeroom. What happened in Chinese. What happened in Global. What happened in study hall. What happened in Science. What happened in Lunch. What happened in English. What happened in engineering. What happened in Math. What happened when I got home... but I'm not going to be that downhearted about everything... even though it was a rough day. February 14^th. One of the worst days of the year.

My school was so worked up about everything. The junior class council was selling carnations to be delivered to homeroom today, and a girl in the homeroom next to mine started crying because she didn't get a flower from someone she wanted to. Between third and fourth period, there was a major fight outside the cafeteria over a girl. And then spaced out through the afternoon, there were a ton a fights between various people. And this is just the stuff I saw first hand. I wasn't at the Snowball this weekend, so I'm not going to relate all the drama that happened there.

You know why drama is the word it is? 

It rhymes with trauma.

Anyway, I conducted an informal survey today, asking my classes if they knew the history of Valentine's Day. They asked why I wanted to know. I said I was curious. They almost all said that they didn't know. Three of the people in my science class mentioned St. Valentine, but none of them knew his history or anything.

Why do we celebrate a holiday that we don't even know the history of? I mean, I know where President's Day comes from. Martin Luther King Jr Day. Christmas. Easter. The Fourth of July. All these holidays and we know why we celebrate them. Well, I'm not so sure I know what Labor – why do I always spell labour the British way? – Day is for, but... yeah...

I haven't done a lot of research on the history of Valentine's Day because I only just started looking into it, but get this, according to wikipedia Valentine's Day started as the celebration of three Christian matyrs, Valentine of Rome, Valentine of Terni, and a third Valentine who was murdered somewhere in Africa. It was the third Saint who's death was recorded on February 14^th. All this happened between 269 AD and 197 AD. Isn't this just the most auspicious of beginnings?

Apparently, nothing absolutely close to romantic was connected to Valentine's Day until the middle of the 14^th Century.

The first mentions of the romantic legends come from Legenda Aurea, or Golden Legend. This book was basically a collection of stories and legends from Rome and whatnot. The romantic legend of St. Valentine's Day says that Valentine himself... but wait... there's three Valentines... was tortured by Emperor Claudius the Second, for marrying young couples. According to the Emperor, married men where not as effective soldiers and so Valentine took to marrying people behind Claudius's back.

Valentine was caught and thrown in jail. While imprisoned, Valentine preformed a miracle and healed an ailing jailor's daughter. They fell in love. On the day of his scheduled execution, Valentine wrote a note to the young girl, signing it “From your Valentine.”

Gee. This just the most exciting love story ever.

So, I'm still not sure while Valentine's Day is celebrated, or why the romantic Valentine is considered a saint and everything, but I don't write the history books, I s'pose. And I know it caused more trouble that it was worth, but I'll suppose I'll just have to live with that.

And I don't have a parting comment, really, at all. Deal with it.