Valentine’s day was caused and an aftermath : Lupercalian and St. Valentine’s Day Massacre

In my head, after several literature i’ve read yet, there are several prediction and version about history of valentine’s day. however, the most sexy i wanna write on my blog is the controversial one of valentine’s story. Wrote, that valentine’s day was celebrated and declared by Cristian (established by Pope Gelasius I in AD 496.) for two reason. firstly, to remember and celebrate the merit of the martyr (a struggle man) -as we know together- santo valentinus -He is the one who were brave to against rome policy and spread the Cristian pedagogic- and  Second reason,  14 february established as a love and piece day by Pope Gelasius because in Christian they have no a ceremonial like lupercalian -belonging to Rome, celebrate on 13-15 February- as a celebration of the day of happiness, figured with a love and marriage ceremony, for Romanian.

in the other case, there was an accident -exactly a murderer- happened at 14 February 1929. This Case has a relationship certainly with St. Valentine -as a victim- so what the matters? 14 february is a love day, and why was there an accident?. In my extreme point, Valentine day appears and established based on jealousness and give the bad impact. it is normal, because if a matters is begun by bad matters, it will give aftermath. Up to you, it’s my opinion. if you have another contradiction opinion just keeping on your arm.

ok, may be i have some story about the lupercalian as a cause of valentine’s day and the murder accident that has happened and triggered by valentine’s day. enjoy guys!!!

LUPERCALIA

Article by Leonhard Schmitz, Ph.D., F.R.S.E., Rector of the High School of Edinburgh

on p718 of

William Smith, D.C.L., LL.D.:
A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, John Murray, London, 1875.

LUPERCAʹLIA, one of the most ancient Roman festivals, which was celebrated every year in honour of Lupercus, the god of fertility. All the ceremonies with which it was held, and all we know of its history, shows that it was originally a shepherd-festival (Plut. Caes. 61). Hence its introduction at Rome was connected with the names of Romulus and Remus, the kings of shepherds. Greek writers and their followers among the Romans represent it as a festival of Pan, and ascribe its introduction to the Arcadian Evander. This misrepresentation arose partly from the desire of these writers to identify the Roman divinities with those of Greece, and partly from its rude and almost savage ceremonies, which certainly are a proof that the festival must have originated in the remotest antiquity. The festival was held every year, on the 15th of February,a in the Lupercal, where Romulus and Remus were said to have been nurtured by the she-wolf; the place contained an altar and a grove sacred to the god Lupercus (Aurel. Vict. de Orig. Gent. Rom. 22; Ovid. Fast. II.267). Here the Luperci assembled on the day of the Lupercalia, and sacrificed to the god goats and young dogs, which animals are remarkable for their strong sexual instinct, and thus were appropriate sacrifices to the god of fertility (Plut. Rom. 21; Servius ad Aen. VIII.343).b Two youths of noble birth were then led to the Luperci, and one of the latter touched their foreheads with a sword dipped in the blood of the victims; other Luperci immediately after wiped off the bloody spots with wool dipped in milk. Hereupon the two youths were obliged to break out into a shout of laughter. This ceremony was probably a symbolical purification of the shepherds. After the sacrifice was over, the Luperci partook of a meal, at which they were plentifully supplied with wine (Val. Max. II.2.9). They then cut the skins of the goats which they had sacrificed, into pieces; with some of which they covered parts of their body in imitation of the god Lupercus, who was represented half naked and half covered with goat-skin. The other pieces of the skins they cut into thongs, and holding them in their hands they ran through the streets of the city, touching or striking with them all persons whom they met in their way, and especially women, who even used to come forward voluntarily for the purpose, since they believed that this ceremony rendered them fruitful, and procured them an easy delivery in childbearing. This act of running about with thongs of goat-skin was a symbolic purification of the land, and that of touching persons a purification of men, for the words by which this act is designated are februare and lustrare (Ovid. Fast. II.31; Fest. s.v. Februarius). The goat-skin itself was called februum, the festive day dies februata, the month in which it occurred Februarius, and the god himself Februus.

The act of purifying and fertilizing, which, as we have seen, was applied to women, was without doubt originally applied to the flocks, and to the people of the city on the Palatine (Varro, de Ling. Lat. V. p60, Bip.). Festus (s.v. Crepos) says that the Luperci were also called crepi or creppi, from their striking with goatskins (a crepitu pellicularum), but it is more probable that the name crepi was derived from crepa, which was the ancient name for goat (Fest. s.v. Caprae).

The festival of the Lupercalia, though it necessarily lost its original import at the time when the Romans were no longer a nation of shepherds, was yet always observed in commemoration of the founders of the city. Antonius, in his consulship, was one of the Luperci, and not only ran with them half-naked and covered with pieces of goat-skin through the city, but even addressed the people in the forum in this rude attire (Plut. Caes. 61). After the time of Caesar, however, the Lupercalia seem to have been neglected, for Augustus is said to have restored it (Suet. Aug. 31), but he forbade youths (imberbes) to take part in the running. The festival was henceforth celebrated regularly down to the time of the emperor Anastasius. Lupercalia were also celebrated in other towns of Italy and Gaul, for Luperci are mentioned in inscriptions of Velitrae, Praeneste, Nemausus, and other places (Orelli, Inscr. n2251, &c.). (Cf. Luperci; and Hartung, Die Relig. der Römer, vol. II p176, &c.).

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Thayer’s Notes:

a Modern attempts to relate the Lupercalia to Valentine’s Day because of the mere (approximate) date seem very suspect to me. That the two occasionally get equated seems rather to be an indication of late 20c mentality, according to which a lovers’ festival must necessarily derive from the titillations of ancient fertility and flagellation by goats. More to the point, there is not the slightest shred of historical evidence for the connection. In the 5c, Pope Gelasius instituted the feast of St. Valentine (possibly a bishop of Terni in Umbria, although there are several other candidates), but we have no record of his motives: if you can see any relation between the celebration of the Lupercalia as you read it above and anyone’s celebration of Valentine’s Day, you’re a better man than I, or you have some exceedingly odd friends. (For a perfect example of this kind of projection, though, see this fun article in the San Francisco Gate; it even quotes the article you’ve just read.)

From the purification of shepherds and fields (not, by the way, of women) to the Purification of the Virgin Mary is another unwarranted leap made by some, on the tenuous grounds of coincidence and closeness of date, since the Christian feast is celebrated on the 2d of February. Fortunately, the odd notion is easily dispelled by a glance at the Bible and a calendar: see the Catholic Encyclopedia article Candlemas. This is not to say that in the decaying world of paganism and rising Christianity, there were not connections; for a careful, close look at them, see The Lupercalia in the Fifth Century (CP 26:60‑69).

Finally, leaving aside the vagaries of those who seek to reduce Christianity to a hotch-potch of pagan rituals — in case you haven’t noticed, gentle reader, we’re dealing with an agenda — the Lupercalia themselves have been described as including a “lottery” in which young girls would write their names on slips of paper and young men draw them out of a box (or vice-versa), under the supervision of the Luperci: this is sheer fabrication, and a recent one at that. The first mention of such an idea dates only to 1756, in Alban Butler’s Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs and Other Principal Saints, where the author blithely asserts (Vol. 2, s.v. February XIV, St. Valentine, Priest and Martyr) that “To abolish the heathens lewd superstitious custom of boys drawing the names of girls, in honour of their goddess Februata Juno, on the fifteenth of this month, several zealous pastors substituted the names of saints in billets, given on this day.” No trace of any such custom has been found, but at least Butler was a better classicist, associating the date with another pagan feast altogether. A Frenchman named Douce, in 1807, then dragged in the Lupercalia, then as usual with this kind of thing, everyone repeated it until it became “true”: but there is no ancient witness to any of it. It is not true.

There are a lot of things we don’t know. Many people, abhorring a void, fill it up with nonsense.

St. Valentine’s Day Massacre with Pictures – 1929 – Al Capone True Crime Story

One February evening in North Chicago, seven well-dressed men were found riddled with bullets inside the S.M.C Cartage Co. garage. They had been lined up against a wall, with their backs to their executioners and shot to death. With the exception of Dr. Reinhardt H. Schwimmer these men were mobsters working under the leadership of gangster and bootlegger, “Bugs” Moran. Within a few seconds, while staring at a bare brick wall, these seven men had become a part of Valentine’s Day history: the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. [continued below]
Chicago policemen re-enact the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre (1929)

During the height of prohibition and the never-ending competition between gangster rivals Al “Scarface” Capone and George “Bugs” Moran, bloody warfare was nothing new to the authorities of Chicago. However, investigators on the scene found the Valentine’s Day Massacre to be somewhat puzzling. The victims were mobsters, with an endless supply of weapons and well known capability for brutality. Why would they turn their backs and face the wall for anyone without putting up a fight? That was one of many questions to be answered.

Another question came about after an eyewitness gave her account of what happened on that night in 1929. She lived directly across the street and had a perfect view of the garage. She claimed to have seen two uniformed policemen exit the garage while escorting two plain clothed men who held their hands up in the air, as if they were under arrest. Of course, this comforted the shaken woman, thinking that the loud gun fire that she had just heard had been resolved and the parties responsible were being taken into custody. However, the Chicago police had no record of any such activity at 2122 Clark Street until they arrived on the scene to find the horrifying blood bath.

When it comes to suspects, a murder mystery can run the gamut of possibilities. In the case of The Valentine’s Day Massacre, the person with the most motive was not difficult to come by. Although he claimed to be in Florida at the time of the murders, Al Capone was, without hesitation, the one and only suspect in this infamous crime. Thanks to prohibition, Capone had become the crime czar of Chicago, running gambling, prostitution and bootlegging rackets while continuously expanding his territories by getting rid of rival gangs. Capones fortune was estimated at $60,000,000. That kind of money gave Al Capone one of the oldest and most common motives in murder mystery history. He had to take down “Bugs” Moran at any cost. But as one of the leading gangsters in Chicago, Moran was not an easy person to get rid of. So in order to get rid of Moran, Capone chose to start at the bottom and get rid of Moran’s outfit, leaving him defenseless.

When the bodies were discovered splattered on the floor of the garage, it seemed at first glance, that not one single person could have survived the force of the attack. However, this proved to be untrue, when one investigator on the scene found Frank Gusenberg lying amongst the bloody corpses, breathing heavily and choking on his own blood. Immediately, the unconscious victim was taken to the hospital where investigators waited with anticipation for their only possible lead to wake up and finger the men who were responsible. Their greatest fear was that he would die before they had the opportunity to question him, but eventually he did wake. When he was asked for the identity of the killer, he simply stated “I’m not gonna talk,” before he laid his head back and died. Without Frank Gusenberg’s testimony and with only a few eye witnesses outside the garage, the investigators had to return to the scene of the crime and try to piece the murder together with what information they had.

After a re-enactment of the crime, authorities concluded that the two men dressed as policemen entered the garage and acted as if they were police on a routine investigation. The Moran outfit automatically assumed that they were policemen on a routine sting. It was obvious that they didnt suspect anything questionable with the two uniformed killers or they certainly would have never been killed without a fight. But as it was, the mobsters seemed to have cooperated with the costumed officers and consequently let the fake policemen disarm them and force them up against the wall. As soon as their backs were turned, the two men in plain clothes entered with guns and shot them down.

Therefore, the eye-witnesses were somewhat accurate when they claimed to have seen two policemen arresting two men. What they had actually seen was four brutal murderers making their cleverly planned get away. If a neighbor or neighbors looked out after such rapid and explosive gunfire, what better way to calm their nerves, by letting them think that everything was under control. And indeed it was under control. The mysterious killers drove away into the night, long before anyone thought to call the police, because the neighbors saw from their windows that the police were already there.

As any mystery lover knows, a murder mystery would not be complete without a clear and well defined conclusion, but in the case of the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, it has every element of the mystery, but the ending. Al Capone was never arrested for the crimes; the mysterious gun men were never identified and Capone never graced a reader or interested member of the public with an over dramatic confession. Instead, he was blandly indicted for tax evasion some years later and spent seven years in prison only to be released to retire in Florida, where he died from Syphilis in 1947.

In many respects, the Valentine’s Day Massacre follows the perfect mystery blueprint up to the end. Although Capone never went into complete detail on the events of the massacre, perhaps he did allude to his future plans for that bloody Valentine’s Day in 1929. A few months prior to the murders, Al Capone mentioned to a fellow “associate” his plan to take down Moran. Capone was told by the “associate” that he would have to kill a lot of people in order to get to “Bugs” Moran. It is rumored that Capone replied by simply saying: “I’ll send flowers.”