Hello everyone. Happy Love Day. Today's Valentine's Day. There's a lot to be said about what that means.

I really like what Arnie Sepple wrote for The Dark Origins of Valentine's Day on NPR, where they say, quote,

Valentine's Day is a time to celebrate romance and love and kissy-face fealty,

but the origins of this festival of candy and cupids are actually dark, bloody, and a bit muddled.

Though no one has pinpointed the exact origin of the holiday, one place to start is ancient Rome.

From February 13th to the 15th, the Roman celebrated the feast of Lupercalia.

The men sacrificed a goat and a dog.

And then they whipped the women with the hides of the animals that they just had slain.

And the Roman romantics, quote, were drunk and they were naked.

What is this? Nolenski now, a religious studies professor at Yale University, told NPR in

2011, young women would line up for the men to hit them. Lenski said they believed this would

make them fertile. Well, clearly a man wrote that in...

But, you know, like all the historical origins of Valentine's Day aside and the goat and the dog and the hitting and the fertility.

And the blood.

You know, it all came to one.

That's where the red came from.

Maybe that's where the red came from.

You know?

Like your heart, if we're talking about what the heart feels, then the blood, I guess so.

All that aside, I deeply associate Valentine's Day for myself with, like, you know, like having a partner, a romantic partner, and maybe the shame or the joy of having somebody to take me out on Valentine's Day.

And, you know, I think of, like, my dad always bringing home a box of chocolates and roses

from my mom.

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