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Why Valentine’s Day Must Not be Celebrated:
Read the below study, then go to my lesson plan link, and print out the worksheets and puzzles that go with this study. http://school.discovery.com/lessons4/mneale2/html/1076650428537.html
I have also added a few Sabbath arts and craft ideas at this link, after you read the study. http://texicansrus.250free.com/SabbathArtsCrafts.html
Since Valentine’s Day is here (for the world), this is a great opportunity to show how this "man-made" holiday is wrong.
YHWH wants us to follow HIM, and HIS Feast days and Sabbaths. HE does not want us to follow gods that men make up. HE does not want us to follow the things that are in the heavens either. The holidays of today are pagan in origin, and many were created by people who wanted to praise things in the sky, or things that they saw in heavens or earth. They made themselves gods to worship and bow down to.
Ex. 20:3 "You shall have no other gods before me. 4 "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, YHWH your Elohim, am a jealous Elohim, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.
When we follow other gods (man-made gods) we are worshiping them instead of YHWH. We are not to follow the world’s custom’s and practices.
Ex. 23:24 Do not bow down before their gods or worship them or follow their practices. You must demolish them and break their sacred stones to pieces.
Lev. 18:30 Keep my requirements and do not follow any of the detestable customs that were practiced before you came and do not defile yourselves with them. I am YHWH your Elohim.'"
Deut. 6:14 Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you;
Deut. 8:19 If you ever forget YHWH your Elohim and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed.
Deut. 13:1 If a prophet, or one who foretells by dreams, appears among you and announces to you a miraculous sign or wonder, 2 and if the sign or wonder of which he has spoken takes place, and he says, "Let us follow other gods" (gods you have not known) "and let us worship them," 3 you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer. YHWH your Elohim is testing you to find out whether you love him with all your heart and with all your soul. 4 It is YHWH your Elohim you must follow, and him you must revere. Keep his commands and obey him; serve him and hold fast to him.
YHWH places very severe punishments on HIS people when they disobey by following other customs and practices, especially the practice of following other gods.
Read how Valentine’s Day started, who started it, and to see what they are worshiping. This is a very terrible sin, and something we must not do. Those who do follow this type of behavior will be destroyed as stated in Deut. 8:19. I for one want to be around for a long, long time. I want to do everything humanly possible to stay on the path of YHWH and not of this world so that I won’t be destroyed.
By reading and understanding how and where this pagan day came from, you will understand that it is definitely not something to be followed and practiced.
I also know that we are to love YHWH, love our parents, brothers, sisters, other relatives, and friends. We can show those who we love that we love them everyday of the year, and not just one day out of the year.
Some of the things you can do are;
1. Tell the person you love them everyday.
2. Leave notes saying, "I love you, I care about you, You’re doing a great job", etc. around so that the people you love and care about will see them.
3. Do your schoolwork, homework, and chores around the house without complaining.
4. Be kind to others. Do something nice for the ones you love and care about.
5. Write a thank you card, or "I care about you" card to someone.
6. Draw a picture or make some kind of small gift and give it to others to show them you love and care about them.
These are just a few examples of things that can be done for those you love and care about. I bet you can think of many more! Just remember, we are to do these things every day of the year, not just one day out of the year. We are not to worship pagan deities, only worship YHWH.
The History Of Saint Valentine’s Day:
Information from http://www.historychannel.com/exhibits/valentine/history.html
Every February, across the country, candy, flowers, and gifts are exchanged between loved ones, all in the name of St. Valentine. But who is this mysterious saint and why do we celebrate this holiday?
Every February, across the country, candy, flowers, and gifts are exchanged between loved ones, all in the name of St. Valentine. But who is this mysterious saint and why do we celebrate this holiday?
The history of Valentine's Day -- and its patron saint -- is shrouded in mystery. But we do know that February has long been a month of romance. St. Valentine's Day, as we know it today, contains vestiges of both Christian and ancient Roman tradition.
So, who was Saint Valentine and how did he become associated with this ancient rite? Today, the Catholic Church recognizes at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom were martyred. One legend contends that Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he outlawed marriage for young men -- his crop of potential soldiers. Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When Valentine's actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death. Other stories suggest that Valentine may have been killed for attempting to help Christians escape harsh Roman prisons where they were often beaten and tortured.
According to one legend, Valentine actually sent the first 'valentine' greeting himself. While in prison, it is believed that Valentine fell in love with a young girl -- who may have been his jailor's daughter -- who visited him during his confinement. Before his death, it is alleged that he wrote her a letter, which he signed 'From your Valentine,' an expression that is still in use today. Although the truth behind the Valentine legends is murky, the stories certainly emphasize his appeal as a sympathetic, heroic, and, most importantly, romantic figure. It's no surprise that by the Middle Ages, Valentine was one of the most popular saints in England and France.
While some believe that Valentine's Day is celebrated in the middle of February to commemorate the anniversary of Valentine's death or burial -- which probably occurred around 270 A.D – others claim that the Christian church may have decided to celebrate Valentine's feast day in the middle of February in an effort to 'christianize' celebrations of the pagan Lupercalia festival. In ancient Rome, February was the official beginning of spring and was considered a time for purification. Houses were ritually cleansed by sweeping them out and then sprinkling salt and a type of wheat called spelt throughout their interiors. Lupercalia, which began at the ides of February, February 15, was a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman gods of agriculture, as well as to the Roman founders Romulus and Remus. To begin the festival, members of the Luperci, an order of Roman priests, would gather at the sacred cave where the infants Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, were believed to have been cared for by a she-wolf or lupa. The priests would then sacrifice a goat, for fertility, and a dog, for purification. The boys then sliced the goat's hide into strips, dipped them in the sacrificial blood and took to the streets, gently slapping both women and fields of crops with the goathide strips. Far from being fearful, Roman women welcomed being touched with the hides because it was believed the strips would make them more fertile in the coming year. Later in the day, according to legend, all the young women in the city would place their names in a big urn. The city's bachelors would then each choose a name out of the urn and become paired for the year with his chosen woman. These matches often ended in marriage.
Pope Gelasius declared February 14 St. Valentine's Day around 498 A.D. The Roman 'lottery' system for romantic pairing was deemed un-Christian and outlawed. Later, during the Middle Ages, it was commonly believed in France and England that February 14 was the beginning of birds' mating season, which added to the idea that the middle of February -- Valentine's Day -- should be a day for romance.
The oldest known valentine still in existence today was a poem written by Charles, Duke of Orleans to his wife while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London following his capture at the Battle of Agincourt. The greeting, which was written in 1415, is part of the manuscript collection of the British Library in London, England. Several years later, it is believed that King Henry V hired a writer named John Lydgate to compose a valentine note to Catherine of Valois.
There are varying ideas about what actually became of Valentine. While some say he was beheaded, others contended that he became sick in prison and died. In 1835, the remains – or what are believed to be the remains –of St. Valentine were given to an Irish priest named father John Spratt by Pope Gregory XVI, after Spratt impressed the Pope with his passionate preaching during a visit to Rome. The gift, in a black and gold casket, can still be viewed every Valentine’s Day at the Whitefriar Street Church in Dublin, Ireland.
In Great Britain, Valentine's Day began to be popularly celebrated around the seventeenth century. By the middle of the eighteenth century, it was common for friends and lovers in all social classes to exchange small tokens of affection or handwritten notes. By the end of the century, printed cards began to replace written letters due to improvements in printing technology. Ready-made cards were an easy way for people to express their emotions in a time when direct expression of one's feelings was discouraged. Cheaper postage rates also contributed to an increase in the popularity of sending Valentine's Day greetings. Americans probably began exchanging hand-made valentines in the early 1700s. In the 1840s, Esther A. Howland began to sell the first mass-produced valentines in America.
According to the Greeting Card Association, an estimated one billion valentine cards are sent each year, making Valentine's Day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year. (An estimated 2.6 billion cards are sent for Christmas.) Approximately 85 percent of all valentines are purchased by women. In addition to the United States, Valentine's Day is celebrated in Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, France, and Australia.
Cupid, the child-like, winged deity often associated with our modern Valentine’s day, is the son of Venus, the Roman goddess of love. In Greek mythology, Cupid is known as Aphrodite’s son Eros.
Psa 1:1 Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. 2 But his delight is in the law of YHWH, and on his law he meditates day and night.
We are to have delight in YHWH’s law, not in Greek mythology. YHWH will bless us as long as we walk with HIM, and as long as we stay away from those who are wicked, (those who do wicked things).
Psa. 37:4 Delight yourself in YHWH and he will give you the desires of your heart.
Psa. 112:1 Praise YHWH. Blessed is the man who fears YHWH, who finds great delight in his commands. 2 His children will be mighty in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed.
Psa. 119: 24 Your statutes are my delight; they are my counselors.
Psa. 119: 29 Keep me from deceitful ways; be gracious to me through your law.
30 I have chosen the way of truth; I have set my heart on your laws.
31 I hold fast to your statutes, O YHWH; do not let me be put to shame.
32 I run in the path of your commands, for you have set my heart free.
33 Teach me, O YHWH, to follow your decrees; then I will keep them to the end.
34 Give me understanding, and I will keep your law and obey it with all my heart.
35 Direct me in the path of your commands, for there I find delight.
Anything that leads us away from YHWH we are to turn away from. Holidays that man makes up and follows are not YHWH’s. We need to always search out for YHWH and HIS commandments that HE has set before us. We need to ask HIM for wisdom, and for HIM to guide our paths in HIS ways and not in the ways of this world. Only YHWH’s wisdom will save us.
Prov. 2:12 Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men, from men whose words are perverse, 13 who leave the straight paths to walk in dark ways, 14 who delight in doing wrong and rejoice in the perverseness of evil, 15 whose paths are crooked and who are devious in their ways.
Deut. 4:2 Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of YHWH your Elohim that I give you.
Ex. 23:24 Do not bow down before their gods or worship them or follow their practices. You must demolish them and break their sacred stones to pieces.
Don’t get caught up in the ways of this world. Always seek out YHWH and HIS ways.
Deut. 4:29 But if from there you seek YHWH your Elohim, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul.
The following information was taken from
Valentine, Saint
d. c.270, Roman martyr priest. The customs connected with him in English-speaking countries are probably a survival from a period when a pagan festival associated with love occurred about Feb. 14, which was his feast day until it was dropped from the liturgical calendar in 1969. He is now popularly considered the patron of lovers and the helper of those unhappily in love.
Saint Valentine's Day
Western European Christian holiday, originally the Roman feast of Lupercalia . It was christianized in memory of the martyrdom of St. Valentine in AD 270, who, in medieval times, came to be associated with the union of lovers under conditions of duress. The holiday is celebrated on Feb. 14th by the exchange of romantic or comic verse messages called "valentines." The first commercial valentine greeting cards produced in the United States were created in the 1840s by Esther A. Howland. Today millions of such cards are sold annually.
Lupercalia
(looperkal´ye) , ancient Roman festival held annually on Feb. 15. The ceremony
of the festival was intended to secure fertility and keep out evil. Two male
youths, clad in animal skin, ran around the city slapping passersby with strips
of goat skin. Because the youths impersonated male goats, the ceremony was
believed to be in honor of Faunus . The festival survived into Christian times
and was not abolished until the end of the 5th century..
Faunus Faunusfôn´es, (fôn´es) , in Roman religion, woodland deity, protector
of herds and crops. He was identified with the Greek Pan. His festival was
observed on Dec. 5 with dancing and merrymaking. Another festival, the
Lupercalia, held in February, is also generally believed to have been in honor
of him. He was attended by fauns—mischievous and sportive creatures, half man
and half goat, similar to satyrs. The female counterpart of Faunus was Bona Dea,
also called Fauna.