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Peoria Times
OPINION
February 17, 2022
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AROUND THE BLUHMIN’ TOWN
Always be bold when expressing love BY JUDY BLUHM Peoria Times Columnist
How was your Valentine’s Day? Hope you had time to buy (or receive) flowers (red, of course), a box of chocolates and a wonderful bottle of champagne. We celebrate the “most romantic day of the year” that actually started in the fifth century as a pagan holiday. The “day of love” had its beginnings in Rome, when mid-February marked the annual Lupercalia festi-
val, an ode to the god of fertility. It was one huge celebration. Evidently, those Romans knew how to party, because it became the season to fall in love and marry. Then Claudius II became emperor and the party stopped. He had the notion that marriage only distracted and weakened men (sadly, my husband agrees) and so to assure quality soldiers, he banned marriage. A bishop named Valentine stood up for love and met couples in secret places and joined them in the sacrament of matrimony. When the evil Claudius learned of this, he labeled Valentine a “friend of lovers” and had
him arrested. Unless Valentine agreed to worship the Roman gods and stop marrying young couples, he would be executed. Valentine was a man of faith and conviction, therefore he refused to stop and was jailed. A miracle happened while Valentine was in jail awaiting his fate. He fell in love with his jailer’s daughter, Asterius. Just before Valentine was executed, he wrote a heartfelt letter to Asterius and signed it, “Be mine, your Valentine.” Legend has it that he wrote love letters in his own blood and wore a red scarf to his execution. At a garage sale I spotted a beautiful
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square piece of lace that was lying on a table. I picked it up and an elderly lady came and gently took it out of my hands. “This is mine,” she said sweetly. Then she scolded her daughter for putting it up for sale. The lady told me that her husband wrapped their wedding bouquet in this little piece of lace when they got married. “I still remember that moment,” she sighed. Love lives in those tender gestures. Valentine’s Day is about undying love. It’s not the candy but the sweetness of romance that it celebrates. It is SEE LOVE PAGE 11
