Cupid was the god of love, and Juno was the goddess of women and marriage.. Saint Valentine of Rome According to one very popular legend, Valentine was a priest in Rome who lived during
Trang 1There are three legends surrounding the origin of
St Valentine’s Day
Feast of Lupercalia
Several historians trace the origin of Valentine's
Day to pagan times in the ancient Roman Empire
In those times, people organized a holiday on
February 14 to honor Juno - the mythological
Queen of Roman gods and goddesses Cupid was
the god of love, and Juno was the goddess of
women and marriage February 15 was a Fertility
Festival called the Feast of Lupercalia During the
Feast of Lupercalia, all the young women in the city
would place their name in a big urn The young
men would each pick a name out of the urn and
were paired with the girl for the rest of the year
Sometimes, the paired couple would fall in love
and marry Later, when Christianity spread
through Rome, they decided the practice of finding
a mate through the ‘lottery' was un-Christian and
outlawed
Saint Valentine of Rome
According to one very popular legend, Valentine
was a priest in Rome who lived during the reign of
Emperor Claudius II Under his regime, Claudius
lost many soldiers of Rome in several bloody
battles To strengthen his army, the Emperor
needed to continuously recruit more soldiers
However, Claudius found that soldiers with wives
and families did not want to fight because of this
attachment In order to raise more fighting forces,
Claudius cancelled all marriages and engagements
in Rome Valentine was a Christian priest who
defied this decree of Claudius by secretly marrying
young men and women When Valentine's defiance
was discovered by the Emperor, he was martyred
on February 14, around 270 AD For his martyrdom and dedication to love and marriage, Valentine was named a Saint after his death By the Middle Ages, Saint Valentine became popular as the patron saint
of love in England and France So, Pope Gelasius declared February 14 as Valentine's Day on 498 AD and ended pagan celebrations Saint Valentine's Day of execution became an occasion to celebrate love
Birds Mating Time
During the Middle Ages, people in England and France held a popular belief that birds started to look for a mate from February 14 This popular notion further strengthened the idea that the middle of February should be celebrated as the day
of love and romance The concept caught on among lovers, and the day was celebrated by exchanging love notes and simple gifts like flowers
A Find a word in the selection that means the
SAME as:
Trang 21 choose
2 ceramic vase
3 make stronger
4 rebellion
5 executed
6 commitment
7 celebration
with food (*2)
8 very old story
B Find a word in the selection that means the
OPPOSITE of:
C True or False
1 sporadic
2 lower
3 publicly
4 Christian (*2)
5 allowed
6 modern
7 unpopular
8 complicated
1 Claudius II was an emperor of
Rome
2 The ‘lottery’ was a Roman way of winning money
3 There are several different legends
of St Valentine’s Day
4 St Valentine believed in love and marriage
5 The Roman emperor made it illegal
to go to war
6 In the Middle Ages, people believed that birds made nests in the spring
7 Juno was the Roman goddess of women and marriage
8 Pope Gelasius declared St
Valentine’s Day to be February 14 C
D Vocabulary Match
1 surrounding A A big fight involving a lot of soldiers between two sides
2 recruit B To give something and get something else
3 notion C When two people promise to get married
4 battle D going around something, either literal or metaphorical
5 engagement E The beginning
6 origin F Try to get people to join you or become involved in what you’re doing
7 trace G To follow closely, sometimes in writing or drawing
8 defied (defy) H Connection
Trang 39 attachment I Simple idea or thought
10 exchange J to refuse to follow a law because you don’t agree with it
E Comprehension
1 Why was St Valentine named a saint?
2 Are these legends true?
3 What kind of things were exchanged on Valentine’s Day in the Middle Ages?
_
4 Why did Claudius II cancel marriages?
_
5 Would you like to pick a mate by ‘lottery’? why or why not?