Valentine\'s Day

The history of Valentines Day is a mysterious one. Fill in the correct version of the words in brackets We do know that February has been a month of romantic for a very long time. St. Valentines Day, contains leftovers of both Christian and ancient Roman tradition. But who was Saint Valentine and how do he become associate with this ancient rite1? One legend says that Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single man made good soldiers than those with wives and families, he banned marriage for young guys. Valentine, realizing the unfairness of the order, continued secret to perform marriages for young lovers. When Valentines actions were discovered, Claudius sentenced him to dead. According to the legend, Valentine actual sent the first \"valentine\" greet himself. It is believed that Valentine fall in love with a young girl while he was imprisoned. It might have been his jailo2rs daughter who visited him during his imprisonment. Before his execution he write her a letter, which he signed \"From your Valentine,\" a phrase that is still in use today. Although the true behind the Valentine legend is foggy, the story certainly emphasises his reputation3 as a sympathetic, hero, and whats even more important, romantic figure. While some believe that Valentines Day is celebrated in the middle of February to remember the anniversary of Valentines death others say that the Christian church may have decided to celebrate Valentines feas4t day in an effort to \"christianise\" celebrations of the pagan5 Lupercalia festival. In ancient Rome, February was the official begin of spring and was considered a time for purification6. Houses were ritual cleansed by sweeping them out and then sprinkling salt and a type of wheat throughout their interiors. To begin the festival, members of the Luperci, a religion community of Roman priests, would gather at the holy cave7 where the infants Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, were believed to have been cared 1 Ritus / Brauch 2 Gefängnisaufseher / Kerkermeister 3 Ruf 4 Fest / Feier 5 heidnisch 6 Reinigung 7 heilige Höhle
For by a shewolf or lupa8. The priests would then sacrifice a goat, for fertility9, and a dog, for purification. The boys then sliced the goats skin into strips, dipped them in the sacrific0ia1l blood and took to the streets, gently slap both women and fields of crops with the goat hide strips11. Roman women welcomed touch with the strips because it be believed that they would make them more fertile12 in the come year. Later in the day all the youth women in the city would place their names in a big pot. The citys bachelors would then each choose a name out of the pot and become paired for the year with his chosen woman. These matches often end in marriage. February 14th was declared as St. Valentines Day by Pope Gelasius in 498 A.D. The roman lottery system for matchmaking13 was considered to be unchristian and therefore was banned later on in history. In Great Britain, Valentines Day begin to be celebrated around the seventeenth century. By the middle of the eighteenth century, it was common for friends and love to exchange small tokens14 of affect or handwritten notes. Lösungen: 1. romance 2. did 3. associated 4. men 5. better 6. secretly 7. death 8. actually 9. greeting 10. fell 11. wrote 12. truth 13. heroic 14. beginning 15. ritually 16. religious 17. slapping 18. being touched 19. was 20. coming 21. young 22. ended 23. began 24. lovers 25. affection 26. 27. 28. 2011 by Andreas Felis www.FlyingEnglishCoach.de 8 Italienisches Wort für: Wölfin 9 Fruchtbarkeit 10 zum Opfern gehörig 11 Ziegenhautstreifen 12 fruchtbar 13 Verkupplung / Eheanbahnung 14 kleines Geschenk

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