A celebration with obscene origins, a romantic tradition or a recent commercial invention? The story of Valentine's Day is all of this at the same time
.
The feast of February 14, celebrated almost everywhere in the world, takes on different accents from one region to another: it honors couples in Europe, and more generally friendship in the United States, it is a feminine ritual in Japan and takes on a subversive aspect in Muslim countries.
Historical notes and overview of Valentine's Day celebrations
- Pagan and obscene
origins
-
At the origin of the Valentine's Day, the
Lupercalia
they were Roman purification festivals celebrated in mid-February.
The naked young men had to whip the young women to make them fertile.
These festivals are the ancestors of medieval carnivals which, with their enamored lotteries, gradually led to Valentine's Day, explains French sociologist Jean-Claude Kaufmann in his book “Saint Valentin, mon amour!”.
- Roman martyr priest -
This festival is obviously also linked to the cult of the Roman priest Valentino, who died beheaded on February 14, in the third century, for having celebrated Christian weddings.
Legend has it that Valentino cured his daughter from the blindness of her jailer and that the day before her martyrdom he slipped her a card signed "your Valentine".
This "legend was invented in retrospect because religious and political authorities needed this narrative," reports Jean-Claude Kaufmann.
- Lotteries for lovers -
Practiced at the end of the Middle Ages in England and France, lotteries for lovers associated writing sweet cards with Valentine's Day celebrations, paleographer archivist Nathalie Koble reports.
Under Louis XIV, the French writer Gabriel de Guilleragues describes this game as follows: "You have to put the names of thirty men and thirty women on sixty pieces of paper, copy sixty madrigals separately. After drawing a man's name separately. And that one. of a woman, let's draw two madrigals, to see what they say ".
- Valentines
- In England, tickets are transformed into "valentines", sweet words addressed to young people in love for February 14th.
The development of the post office in the 19th century gave impetus to these exchanges.
-
- $ 20 billion -
It was in the mid-19th century and in the United States that Valentine's Day was kicked off modern and commercial, thanks to the invention of packaged postcards to be mailed to the beloved.
The success of this celebration, new in the United States, is "dazzling", reports Jean-Claude Kaufmann.
Promoters also quickly have the idea of extending the target audience of lovers to a wider population of parents, children, friends or neighbors.
O
oday, the American version of Valentine's Day is like a great celebration of love, friendship and affection, in which they spent $ 20 billion annually
(data from the Federation of American Trade, NRF).
- Chocolates for men in Japan -
In Japan, the outbreak of Valentine's Day dates back to the aftermath of World War II, when candy makers came up with the idea of making February 14
a day when women gave away chocolates.
Half a century later, the tradition is well established: millions of Japanese women offer pralines or ganaches on Valentine's Day as a sign of affection, friendship or professional respect, with very specific codes.
The "giri-choko", obligatory chocolates, are reserved for colleagues and bosses while the "honmei-choko", superior quality chocolates, are the only sign of "true love", explains Japanese teacher and translator Namiko Abe.
-Banned the red heart -
The celebration of Valentine's Day is
banned or threatened in about thirty countries,
according to Jean-Claude Kaufmann.
These are mainly
Muslim countries
that consider Valentine's Day a "pagan Christian holiday".
This has long been the case in Saudi Arabia.
In Iran, the festival is very popular but trade associations expressly prohibit the sale of red heart-shaped balloons in February.