Ahhh yes, Valentine's Day. Now, I am not really one of those haters that has always been single on this glorious hallmark holiday; however, since one of ex's enlightened me to the "true" foundation of this holiday it has, and will forever be one of my personal favorites.
The fact is, that like many "Christian" holidays, it was (possibly) adapted from an ancient pagan ritual. This time, it was taken from a festival celebrated by the Romans during their highest point of power in history. During this time (what was Feb 13th-15th) a matchmaking ritual was performed (something along the lines of drawing names out of a hat) and people would be naked for the duration and mate. In addition, women would line up to be beat by men in hopes that it would make them more fertile.
Now, the question is where exactly does the name "Valentine" come from, well that is a mystery solved here too. According to record many saints were sacrificed on this day by the Roman Empire, and at least two of these saints were named "Valentine". The Catholic church adopted this holiday, put clothes back on it and gave recognition to a St. Valentine in hopes of extinguishing the old ways (much like what happened with Christmas). The holiday was unpopular until Shakespeare made it popular in his plays which then came to the New World and is the wonderful holiday that we all know and love today
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It is with this, that I wish everyone on SG a happy Valentine's Day, I hope I could have taught you guys something, as knowledge is always the best gift you can ever get!
The fact is, that like many "Christian" holidays, it was (possibly) adapted from an ancient pagan ritual. This time, it was taken from a festival celebrated by the Romans during their highest point of power in history. During this time (what was Feb 13th-15th) a matchmaking ritual was performed (something along the lines of drawing names out of a hat) and people would be naked for the duration and mate. In addition, women would line up to be beat by men in hopes that it would make them more fertile.
Now, the question is where exactly does the name "Valentine" come from, well that is a mystery solved here too. According to record many saints were sacrificed on this day by the Roman Empire, and at least two of these saints were named "Valentine". The Catholic church adopted this holiday, put clothes back on it and gave recognition to a St. Valentine in hopes of extinguishing the old ways (much like what happened with Christmas). The holiday was unpopular until Shakespeare made it popular in his plays which then came to the New World and is the wonderful holiday that we all know and love today
.It is with this, that I wish everyone on SG a happy Valentine's Day, I hope I could have taught you guys something, as knowledge is always the best gift you can ever get!
Many of us know of the so called "Pandora's Box" from the Greek myths; however, most of us don't realize what the true story was. In the early days a god, Prometheus, gave humans fire and was chained to a mountain to have his liver eaten out on a daily basis, that however, was the god's punishment, Zeus still had to decide how to punish humans, so he gave us women. A horribly misogynistic point of view as written, but that's the way it was told. The first woman was created, given the name Pandora, which if broken down means all given, or all presents, and all the gods were asked to give her something. This beautiful woman was then given to Prometheus's brother and while he was away she opened a box that was said to contain all of the evils in the world (old age, sorrow, misery, hate...etc...). In a panic it is said that she slammed the lid shut, leaving one feeling behind: Hope.
There are a couple of views that can be taken here, as to what exactly that means; however, both of them eventually lead to the human race as being "hopeless".
All of the above is so that I could get to this point. Recently, I have been feeling happy which is highly irregular for me. As such, I haven't truly been happy in several years as depression has gotten the better of my teenage/college years. I attribute this to me finally giving into my horrible opposition to anti-depressants and convincing myself that they might be a good thing. The paradox is this, I am happy, but I am almost miserable because I am happy. I mean, is the human race truly hopeless? Am I, in particular, truly hopeless? It seems, that with my happiness per usual comes misery. I have been so accustomed to being in a depressed state that it got to the point of me thinking that's who I really was and now that I'm not there anymore, I miss it. In addition to missing it, part of me truly believes that I don't deserve happiness, self-sabotage is my hobby, and I'm quite exceptional at it. I'm really not sure at this point if I'm a lost cause, or this is a transition state, what I am sure of is that I feel comfortable stating these things on this site for whatever reason even though I'm new, so...if you're reading this, thank you, I may never know who you are, where you're from, or even if you read it, but thank you none-the-less.
There are a couple of views that can be taken here, as to what exactly that means; however, both of them eventually lead to the human race as being "hopeless".
All of the above is so that I could get to this point. Recently, I have been feeling happy which is highly irregular for me. As such, I haven't truly been happy in several years as depression has gotten the better of my teenage/college years. I attribute this to me finally giving into my horrible opposition to anti-depressants and convincing myself that they might be a good thing. The paradox is this, I am happy, but I am almost miserable because I am happy. I mean, is the human race truly hopeless? Am I, in particular, truly hopeless? It seems, that with my happiness per usual comes misery. I have been so accustomed to being in a depressed state that it got to the point of me thinking that's who I really was and now that I'm not there anymore, I miss it. In addition to missing it, part of me truly believes that I don't deserve happiness, self-sabotage is my hobby, and I'm quite exceptional at it. I'm really not sure at this point if I'm a lost cause, or this is a transition state, what I am sure of is that I feel comfortable stating these things on this site for whatever reason even though I'm new, so...if you're reading this, thank you, I may never know who you are, where you're from, or even if you read it, but thank you none-the-less.
Well it's been about a week since I joined SG. Admittedly, I haven't ever really "blogged" or "journal-ed" before so it's a new experience for me.
I'll start off my first ever with saying that SG is not what I expected at all. I've always enjoyed the beautiful pictures posted by several members, but after getting a membership my eyes were opened to a wonderful community that I never knew existed. I hope to become a regular contributing member to the site and a couple groups. I figured I'd first start off by getting back into the ever so time consuming WoW and possibly join the SG guild, that is if they'll have me. Anyway, best of luck to myself, and I look forward to getting to know everyone here...well...maybe not everyone...that's quite a task, but hopefully a lot of you!
I'll start off my first ever with saying that SG is not what I expected at all. I've always enjoyed the beautiful pictures posted by several members, but after getting a membership my eyes were opened to a wonderful community that I never knew existed. I hope to become a regular contributing member to the site and a couple groups. I figured I'd first start off by getting back into the ever so time consuming WoW and possibly join the SG guild, that is if they'll have me
. Anyway, best of luck to myself, and I look forward to getting to know everyone here...well...maybe not everyone...that's quite a task, but hopefully a lot of you!
