Rutherford Weekly - Shelby NC
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1492113
Thursday, February 9-February 15, 2023 www.rutherfordweekly.com 828-248-1408 Rutherford Weekly - Page 7 !!"#$%&' (!)*+,#-./#01 !"#$%&'( )& * !"# $ 132 Blanton St., Spindale, NC 28160 828-287-0776 13 1 ©Community First Media Community First Media Not ever y Ruther ford County Not ever y Ruther ford County home will be home will be warm and cozy this winter. warm and cozy this winter. YOU can make a difference. YOU can make a difference. Financial donations may be mailed Financial donations may be mailed to to Yokefellow Service Center Yokefellow Service Center PO Box 351, Spindale, NC 28160 PO Box 351, Spindale, NC 28160 "Sharing the Burden" since 1967 "Sharing the Burden" since 1967 The Rutherford Life Services Choir performed for participants at The Rutherford County Senior Center Monday morning. Following the program members of the Aktion Club sponsored by the Forest City and Rutherfordton Kiwanis Clubs presented hand made valentine bookmarks to senior center director Tammy Aldridge to distribute to local senior adults. Article& Photos Provided By: Pat Nanney WE OUR READERS Valentine's Day is a bright light in the middle of the winter. Come February 14, sweethearts celebrate their love and affection for one another on this day devoted to happy couples. The origin of Valentine's Day has generated much speculation over the years. Most early accounts do not point to heart- shaped boxes fi lled with chocolates. Rather, a few distinctive tales may paint the picture of early Valentine's Day, and they have nothing to do with stuffed animals or romantic dinners. Roman festival One of the earliest records of the term Valentine's Day is traced to the Roman festival of Lupercalia, which was a fertility festival. This annual event held on February 15 included animal sacrifi ces and priests called the Luperci who would take pieces of animal hide and touch it to the foreheads of women in the hopes it would make them more fertile. Fortunately for the squeamish (and the sacrifi cial animals), Pope Gelasius I ended Lupercalia and replaced it with St. Valentine's Day by the end of the fi fth century. Two or three St. Valentines? Most people attribute the origins of Valentine's Day to the holiday's namesake, St. Valentine. But it seems that Valentine was the surname of a few different individuals. According to History.com, the Catholic Church recognizes at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus. One Valentine was a priest during the reign of Emperor Claudius II, who decided that single men made better soldiers than those with families or wives. Claudius outlawed marriage for young men. Valentine disagreed with the decree and would perform marriages in secret. Others believe it was St. Valentine of Terni, a bishop beheaded by Claudius II outside of Rome, who was the true namesake. Yet another Valentine may have been jailed and fell in love with a jailer's daughter while in prison. He purportedly wrote to her, beginning the fi rst Valentine card or letter tradition. Other stories say the imprisoned Valentine actually was writing to a blind woman he purportedly healed, and signed the note "from your Valentine." It is hard to know who is who in regard to the name Valentine, as the stories and the people behind them are used interchangeably. Some historians believe they actually are the same person rather than several Valentines, while others insist there were multiple martyred individuals. However you slice it, the defi ant actions of one or more people named "Valentine" set the course for centuries of romance to follow. Accounts vary on Valentine's origins