Valentines Day, Skully Style

The big VD is approaching, and I don't mean Venereal Disease Day, unless you happen to be down with that (is ANYONE down with Venereal Disease? Hmmm...) I thought it might be appropriate to write a little on the subject of Valentines Day.

Truth is, I don't have much authority on the subject. CDH and I don't celebrate Valentines Day, because, well, it's like not celebrating Thanksgiving because you're not American, it just doesn't have any relevancy to us.

Don't get me wrong, celebrating our love has HUGE relevancy. MASSIVE. EPICLY EPIC, in fact.

St. Valentines Day involves vestiges of Christian and Pagan Roman traditions. Did you know the Catholic church accepts THREE different saints as St. Valentine? All three were martyrs. We're told the holiday honours the saint's death, but the Christian's set the holiday in February to coincide with the Lupercallia festival, hoping to Christianise it, as they were want to do back then. Lupercallia is basically the Roman's 'Spring Cleaning' festival - every citizen emptied their house, swept it out, sprinkled salt and spelt everywhere, and then went out into the streets for an epic party, where the luperci priesthood ran around slapping the women with meat from the sacrificial goat (seriously people. I can't make this stuff up!)

One legend has Valentine wandering around during the reign of Claudius II, who had the ingenius idea that unwed men made better soldiers, so he outlawed marriage for young men. Valentine thought that was rather naff, so kept performing marriage ceremonies, only ceasing when his head was no longer attached to his body.

According to one legend, Valentine actually sent his first valentine himself. While in prison he fell in love with the jailor's daughter (always a mistake, right there) and would send her letters signed 'from your valentine.' During the Medieval period, with all that courtly love and poetry and such nonsense, Valentines Day became more and more popular, especially in Britian. Pre-printed cards seemed a logical next step, especially given the nature of certian genders to forget these kind of things. America began swapping valentines in the 1700s.

Ester Howland created the first commerical valentines in the 1840s in America, from ribbons and lace and 'scraps', as she called them. Nowadays, over 1 billion cards are sent on valentines, 85% of them by women.

Crazy. Madness. I'm totally celebrating Lupercallia this weekend. Gonna slap me up my husband good with a rack of sacrificial goat meat...It's gonna be rad.

What, Skully Brides and Grooms, if anything, will you do?

Favor Feb: Medieval Love Potion

Via the lovely ladies at Midnight Garden forums, Love Potion favors!

DIY Love potion favor

You will need

• enough corked glass bottles for one per guest
• plain paper
• string or thin ribbon
• black tea
• rosemary
• nutmeg
• thyme
• mint leaves
• dried roses - various colours.
• lemon leaves

To make the favors:

1. Chop the herbs and leaves and place in seperate piles.

2. Into each glass bottle/container, add

• 2 teaspoons black tea
• 1 pinch rosemary
• 3 pinches thyme
• 3 pinches nutmeg
• 3 fresh mint leaves (chopped)
• 6 rose petels (chopped)
• 6 lemon leaves (chopped)

Use a funnel if you're having trouble.

3. Cork each bottle.

4. On a computer, write out the love tea instructions below, in a suitably 'witchy' font. Print these out small - around 8 blocks of instructions per page, and cut out into squares.

5. Place the squares in the oven on 150 celcius and bake for a few minutes. Be careful not to burn the paper. Roll each paper into a scroll and tie with string, leaving long ends dangling off.

6. Use those ends to tie the string around the neck of the bottle in an aesthetically pleasing manner.

Medieval Love Tea

To make another person love you, brew this tea in a earthware or coppor kettle on a Friday during a waxing moon. Sweeten with sugar and honey, as desired. The following friday, brew this tea for your beloved, and they shall desire you.