There are three legends surrounding the origin of St Valentine’s Day Feast of Lupercalia Several historians trace the origin of Valentine's Day to pagan times in the ancient Roman Empire In those times, people organized a holiday on February 14 to honor Juno - the mythological Queen of Roman gods and goddesses Cupid was the god of love, and Juno was the goddess of women and marriage February 15 was a Fertility Festival called the Feast of Lupercalia During the Feast of Lupercalia, all the young women in the city would place their name in a big urn The young men would each pick a name out of the urn and were paired with the girl for the rest of the year Sometimes, the paired couple would fall in love and marry Later, when Christianity spread through Rome, they decided the practice of finding a mate through the ‘lottery' was un-Christian and outlawed discovered by the Emperor, he was martyred on February 14, around 270 AD For his martyrdom and dedication to love and marriage, Valentine was named a Saint after his death By the Middle Ages, Saint Valentine became popular as the patron saint of love in England and France So, Pope Gelasius declared February 14 as Valentine's Day on 498 AD and ended pagan celebrations Saint Valentine's Day of execution became an occasion to celebrate love Birds Mating Time During the Middle Ages, people in England and France held a popular belief that birds started to look for a mate from February 14 This popular notion further strengthened the idea that the middle of February should be celebrated as the day of love and romance The concept caught on among lovers, and the day was celebrated by exchanging love notes and simple gifts like flowers A Saint Valentine of Rome According to one very popular legend, Valentine was a priest in Rome who lived during the reign of Emperor Claudius II Under his regime, Claudius lost many soldiers of Rome in several bloody battles To strengthen his army, the Emperor needed to continuously recruit more soldiers However, Claudius found that soldiers with wives and families did not want to fight because of this attachment In order to raise more fighting forces, Claudius cancelled all marriages and engagements in Rome Valentine was a Christian priest who defied this decree of Claudius by secretly marrying young men and women When Valentine's defiance was Find a word in the selection that means the SAME as: choose ceramic vase make stronger rebellion executed commitment celebration with food (*2) very old story B C Find a word in the selection that means the OPPOSITE of: D C True or False U D Vocabulary Match sporadic E surrounding lower recruit A A big fight involving a lot notion publicly G two people promi C When 4 battle Christian (*2) D going H around something engagement allowed origin E The beginning trace modern G ToJ.follow closely, someti (defy) defied unpopular H Connection K 10 E F B To give something and ge F I Try to get people to join attachment I Simple idea or thought complicated L exchange J to refuse to follow a law Claudius II was an emperor of Comprehension M Rome Why was St Valentine named a saint? TheV.‘lottery’ was a Roman way of N winning money _ There are several different legends _ O of St Valentine’s Day Are these legends true? St Valentine believed in love and _ P marriage _ The Roman emperor made it illegal What kind of things were exchanged on Q to go to war Valentine’s Day in the Middle Ages? In the Middle Ages, people believed R W that birds made nests in the spring _ Juno was the Roman goddess of S women and marriage Why did Claudius II cancel marriages? Pope Gelasius declared St T X Valentine’s Day to be February 14 _ Would you like to pick a mate by ‘lottery’? why or why not? _ _ Y