ValentineDay西方情人节简介英文版

1、What is Vale nti nes Day?Valentines Dayis a celebration of romantic love occurringannually on February14.Although its origi n is associated by lege nd with a Catholic saint n amed Vale ntine, the fact is ValentinesDay is not a religious holiday and never really has been.Vale ntin es Day has historic

2、al roots mainly in Greco-Roma n paga n fertility festivals and the medieval notion that birds pair off to mate on February 14.The history of excha nging cards and other toke ns of love on February 14 bega n to develop in En gla nd and France in the 14th and 15th cen turies and became especially popu

3、lar in the Un ited States in the 19th and 20th centuries.Over the last decade or so, Valentines Day observa nee has eve n spread to the Far East, In dia, and the Middle East.What is the History of Vale nti nes Day?The origin of associating the middle of February with love and fertility dates to anci

4、ent times. In ancient Athens, the period between mid-January and mid-February was the month of Gameli on, which was dedicated to the sacred marriage of Zeus andHera .Inancient Rome, February 15 was Lupercalia , the festival of Lupercus (orFaunus), the god of fertility. As part of the purification ri

5、tual, the priests of Lupercus would sacrifice goats and a dog to the god, and after drinking wine, they would run through the streets of Rome strik ing anyone they met with pieces of the goat skin. Young women would come forth voluntarily for the occasion, believing that being touched by the goat sk

6、in would render them fertile.Young men would also drawnames from an urn, choosing their blind date for the coming year. In 494 AD theChristian church under Pope Gelasius I appropriated the some aspects of the rite as the Feast of the Purificati on.ln Christia ni ty, at least three differe ntsaints n

7、 amedValentine or Valentinus, all of them martyrs, are mentioned in the early lives of the saints under thedate of February 14. Two of the Valentines lived in Italy in the thirdcen tury: one as a priest at Rome, the other as bishop of Terni. They are both said to have been martyred in Rome and burie

8、d on the Flaminian Way. A third St. Valentine was martyred in North Africa andvery little else is known of him.Several lege ndshave developed around one or more of these Vale nti nes, two of which are especially popular. According to one account, Emperor Claudius II outlawed marriage for all young m

9、en because he believed un married men made better soldiers. Vale nti ne defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young couples and was put to death by the emperor for it. A related lege nd has Vale nti ne writ ing letters from pris on to his beloved, signing them From your Valentine.Ho

10、wever, the connection between St.Valentine and romantic love is not mentioned in any early histories and is regarded by historia ns as purely a matter of lege nd. Thefeast of St. Vale ntine was first declaredto be on February 14 by Pope Gelasius I around 498. It is said the pope created the day to c

11、oun ter the practice held on Lupercalia, but this is not attested in any sources from that era.The first recorded associati on of St. Vale nti nes Day with roma nticlovewas in the 14th century in England and France, where it was believed that February 14 was the day on which birds paired off to mate

12、 . Thus we read in Geoffrey Chaucers (c. 1343-1400) Parliament of Fowls , believed to be the first Valentines Day poem:For this was on saint Vale ntin es day,When every fowl comes there to choose his mate.It became com mon duri ng that era for lovers to excha nge no tes on Vale nti nes Dayand to cal

13、l each other their Valentines.The first Valentine cardwas sent byCharles, duke of Orlea ns, to his wife in 1415 whe n he was a pris oner inthe Tower ofLondon . Valentines Day love notes were often given anonymously. It is probable that many of the lege nds about St. Vale ntine developed duri ng this

14、 period (see above). By the 1700s, verses like Roses are red, violets are blue became popular. By the 1850s, romantics in France began embellishing their valentine cards with gilt paper, ribbons and lace.Girls making Valentines Day cards.Valentines Day was probably imported into North America in the

15、 19th century withsettlers from Brita in. In the Un ited States, the firstmass-produced vale nti nesofembossed paper lace were produced and sold shortly after 1847 by Esther A. Howla nd (1828 - 1904) of Worcester, Massachusetts. Her father operated a large book and stati onery store, and she took he

16、r in spirati on from an En glish vale nti ne shehad received .In the 19th cen tury, relics of St. Vale ntinewere don ated by PopeGregory XVI to the Whitefriar Street Carmelite Church in Dublin, Ireland, which hasbecome a popular place of pilgrimage on February 14.But in 1969, as part of a largereffo

17、rt to pare down the number of saint days of legendary origin, the Church removed St. Vale nti nes Day as an official holiday from its cale ndar.Vale nti nes Day Customs and Traditi onsPhoto: Janine HealyThe primary custom associated with St. Valentines Day is the mutual exchange of love notes called

18、 valentines . Common symbols on valentines are hearts, the colors red and pink, and the figure of the winged Cupid.Starting in the 19th century,thepractice of hand writ ing no tes bega n to give way to the excha nge of mass-produced greet ing cards . These cards are no Ion ger give n just to lovers,

19、 but also to frien ds,family, classmates and coworkers.Valentine cards are oftenaccompaniedby tinycandy hearts with affecti on atemessages prin tedon them.The Greeti ng CardAssociation estimates that approximately one billionvalentine cards are sentworldwide each year, making Vale ntin es Day the se

20、c ond largest card-se nding holiday of the year, beh ind Christmas. The associati on also estimates that wome n purchase approximately 85 perce nt of all vale nti nes.ln the last 50 years or so, especially in theUn ited States, the practice of excha nging cards has bee n exte nded to in clude the gi

21、ving of gifts , usually from a man to his girlfriendor wife. The most popularValentines Day gifts are roses and chocolate . Startingin the 1980s, the diamondindustry began to promote ValentinesDay as an occasion for the giving of finejewelry . Many couples also schedule a romantic dinner date on Val

22、entines Day.Vale nti nes Day in China and Japa nThanks to a concentrated marketing effort, Valentines Day has emerged inJapan asa day on which women give chocolates to men they like.This has become for many wome n -especially those who work in offices-an obligati on, and they give chocolatesto all t

23、heir male co-workers (especially the boss), sometimes at significant personal expense. This chocolate is known as giri-choco , which translatesas chocolate ofobligati on.2amanda .Gifts for White Day. Photo:By a further marketing effort, a reciprocal day called White Day has emerged in Japan. On this

24、 day (March 14), men are supposed to return the favor by giving someth ing to those who gave themchocolates on Vale nti nes Day. Many men, however, give only to their girlfrie nds. The gift should be white (he nee the n ame) and is ofte n lingerie.ValentinesDay is also celebrated in China, as is the

25、 related DaughtersFestival . It is held on the 7th month and 7th day of the lunar calendar and celebratesa love story between the seventh daughter of the Emperor of Heaven and an orphaned cowherd, who were sent to separate stars and only allowed to see each other on this one day each year. The next

26、Daughters Festival will be on August 11, 2005.Valentines Day Controversy in India and the Middle EastValentines Day only arrived in India a few years ago, but it has quickly gained popularity among young urba n people along with a great deal ofcon troversy amongcon servative Hin dus. Traditi onal Hi

27、ndu culture discourages public displays of affecti on betwee n the sexes, in cludi ng han d-holdi ng, which Vale nti nesDayencourages, and Valentines Day is also resented by some as a Christian and western in flue nce.ln 2004, milita nt Hindu n ati on alists threate ned to beat the faces and shave t

28、he heads of those who participated in Valentines Day customs. We will not allow westernizationof Indian culture as St. Valentine was a Christian and celebratingValentines Day would be a violation of Indian culture, said Ved Prakash Sachchan, of the militant Hindu organization Bajrang Dal, in Uttar Pradesh. Similarly, a leader of the radical Hindu group Shiv Sena has condemned the holiday as nothing but a Westernonslaught on Indias culture to attract youth for commercial purposes.Members of the group have stole n Vale nti nes Day greeti ng cards from a store and ceremonially burned the