WEBVTT

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This is Food for Thought, Thoughts If It Were

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You, and this is your host, Neogentrics. We finally

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finished the whole series on birth control. As

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I promised, it took about five episodes to do

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so. And I thank you guys for managing to stick

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along through that entire event. Well, as you

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already know, yesterday was Valentine's Day.

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A lot of people were itching and ready to spend

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their monies and, you know, do all sorts of grand

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things for the people that they love and care

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about. I'm all for, you know, treating your honey,

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whether he or she or it, whatever have be, whatever

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you are. You know, good, but in all honest opinion,

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I feel like you should be doing this year round,

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not waiting for a specific day. So while everyone's

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out there spending their money and blowing their

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bank accounts out of proportion just for one

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day of the year, I'm staying at home by myself.

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It's not like I have a choice in the matter,

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but this is my life, right? So before we go any

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further, I got to give a disclaimer. This whole

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episode, I'm going to be doing three different

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things for the next three days. I'm going to

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give a disclaimer. If you like these holidays

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or said events, skip this episode or any of the

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other ones that have a name similar to this one

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and, you know, enjoy your holidays, okay? Today

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I'm going to cover the dark origins of Valentine's

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Day. It's not as great or as glorious as everyone

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says or thinks it is. You know, yeah, okay, great.

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What I'm about to tell you happened in the past,

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but if you stop and think about it for a minute,

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it's not exactly a good thing. So the disclaimer

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here is, before we go any further into this episode,

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and I'm going to cut off after this before I

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go into it. You know, if you like these holidays

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and you don't want to hear what I have to say,

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or you just want a reason to throw whatever I'm

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saying back at me and say I'm lying, go ahead

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and feel free to look it up, but I guarantee

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you won't like what you find. So... Now with

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that out of the way, I am not liable for anything

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that you hear or however it makes you feel. This

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is purely educational. So if you don't want to

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hear what I have to say, just move on. And with

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that, let's begin, shall we? All right, everybody,

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let's begin, shall we? The Dark Origins of, well,

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as you know it, Valentine's Day. First things

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first, Valentine's Day, what is it? Well, it's

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a time to celebrate romance and love and kissy

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-felt -feelity and happiness and all sorts of

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good feelings. At least that's what it's understood

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to be. But the Origins of the Fen - this festival

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of candy and cupids is actually not as bright

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as everyone thinks it is. It's actually pretty

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dark. A little bloody and slightly muddled if

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you understand what I'm saying here. Though no

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one has pinpointed the exact origin of the holiday

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or a good place to start which basically hits

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the nail on the head like this whole thing started

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from this instance. This is what we've managed

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to figure out. through history, is that it started

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in ancient Rome. You know, where men hit on women

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by, well, hitting them. Keep in mind, this is

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Rome. So, again, I have no feelings towards anything.

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I'm a neutral person. Okay? Between February

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13th and the 15th, the Romans celebrated the

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feast of Lupercalia. The men sacrificed a goat

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and a dog and then whipped women with the hides

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of the animals they had just slain. Yeah, that

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sounds real grand, doesn't it? The Roman romantics

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were drunk. They were naked. According to a couple

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of historians from the University of Colorado

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at Boulder, a guy named Noel Lenski, okay? This

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is from what he was able to decipher. Keep this

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in mind, that the information I'm giving you

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is... from knowledgeable sources, people who

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actually went out and tried to research this,

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okay? Let's see. Young women would actually line

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up. Oh, here's the thing. Young women would actually

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line up to let the men actually hit them, or

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at least that's what it looked like from all

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of the different pictographs and such. According

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to some of the description here, I'm not going

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to try to read it in its original Roman. It's

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loosely translated as, they believed this would

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make them more fertile, for lack there of a better

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phrasing. The brutal feat included a matchmaking

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lottery in which young men drew the names of

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women from a jar. The couple would then be coupled

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up for the duration of the festival, or longer

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if they were a decent match. The ancient Romans

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may also be responsible for the name of our modern

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day of love as well as a result of this. And

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the reason this is said to be is because of Emperor

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Claudius II, who executed two men both with the

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name Valentine on the day, well, February 14th,

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of different years in the 3rd century. Their

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martyrdom was honored by the Catholic Church,

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which started... a celebration known as St. Valentine's

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Day. Later, Pope Galatius I muddled things in

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the 5th century by combining Valentine's Day

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with the Lupercalia celebration to expel basically

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pagan rituals and tried to make it a holy holiday.

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Thus, the title holiday means holy day. But the

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festival was more of a theatrical interpretation

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of what it had once been. Lenski added that it

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was a little more of a drunken revel, but the

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Christians put clothes back on it, basically.

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It didn't stop it from being a day of fertility

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and love. That's basically what it's been. And

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around the same time, the Normans celebrated

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Galantine's Day. Galantine meant lover of women.

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That was likely confused with St. Valentine's

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Day, which was around the same point, and since

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they sounded a lot alike. Moving forward a few

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years, if you will, here. Now that we're back.

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As the years went on, the holiday grew sweeter

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and sweeter. It started to get better. Well,

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let's put it this way. Chaucer and Shakespeare

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didn't make it any better. They romanticized

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it in their work and allowed it to gain popularity,

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especially through Britain and the rest of Europe.

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Handmade paper cards became the tokens. How do

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I put this? Handmade paper cards began being

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the way that they started to do this in the Middle

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Ages, and eventually the tradition made its way

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to the New World, in a manner of speaking, if

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you will. Eventually, the Industrial Revolution

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ushered in factory -made cards in the 19th century,

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which is where the whole Hallmark cards thing

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came to be in 1913. It started back in Kansas

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City of Michigan. they started producing mass

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valentines, and February had not been the same

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since then. I guess you could say the whole card

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incident was a result of Shakespeare, in a way.

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As of today, now the holiday is nothing more

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than a big business, and according to the market

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research from IBIS World, Valentine's Day sales

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reached, a couple years ago, it reached $17 .6

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billion. And they were expected to be a little

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bit higher. And over the years, it has been getting

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higher and higher. But that commercialization

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has basically spoiled the day for a lot of people.

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Helen Fisher, a sociologist at Rutgers University,

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says that we've only had ourselves to blame.

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But in retrospect, it's probably better than

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its original origin, considering how it started.

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You know, this isn't a command performance, she

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says. If people didn't want to buy Hallmark cards,

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they would not be bought. and Hallmark would

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go out of business, which is totally true. You

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know, the celebration of Valentine's goes on

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in varied ways, and many will break the bank

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buying jewelry, flowers, and such for their beloved

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ones. You know, others will celebrate in a, you

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know, what's it called, a sad single awareness

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day, or sad day, if you will, like dining alone

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and binging on self -gifted chocolates and such

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simply because they don't have no one to give

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to or get from. And even a few will be spending

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this day the same way the early Romans did. But

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like I said, let's not go there. It's not exactly

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ideal. And all things considered, it would cause

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nothing more than a giant controversy. Okay?

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So, the whole thing with the Valentines was this.

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Emperor Claudius declared single men were more

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proficient soldiers. Marriage for young men was

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outlawed. That's basically how this got started.

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Valentine defied the law and became the go -to

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for lovers to wed in secret. And when Claudius

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found out about the forbidden wedding as well,

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that's when he sentenced him to death on February

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14th. But this isn't, like I said before, this

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isn't the only legend of St. Valentine to exist.

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There are others. It says he was beheaded for

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helping Christians escape from Roman prisons.

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In that story, Valentine was said to have fallen

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in love with the prison guard's daughter. Before

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his execution, he wrote her a letter signed from

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your Valentine. And even stranger and bloodier

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legends is that of the Lupercalia, which I mentioned

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before, which is a Roman festival that's held

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on the 15th, which involved the sacrifice of

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animals and such. The reason for that was to

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ward off evil spirits and infertility. But...

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Like I said, at the end of the 5th century, that

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whole thing was outlawed as being unchristian

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and they stopped doing it. I guess you can say

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this holiday was created by the Pope in a way

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to try to mask what it used to be years ago and

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bring it into a more civilized light. Okay? Now

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that's it for this entire situation regarding

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it. It's not a long story. And the whole thing

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about it is it is pretty dark as to how it even

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came to be. And no matter which variation of

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the story you try to believe or how you try to

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look into it, it always had a dark history in

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which it seems the Roman Catholic Church had

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something to do with it. But even with them trying

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to make it more civilized and a festival, It

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turned out that it was actually Shakespeare and

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Geoffrey Chaucer who basically made it what it

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is today. By simplifying it and making it seem

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like it was some glorious event, you know, and

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with the development of personal cards given

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to said lovers, and then the boom of the industrial

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period making it, modernizing it, and using it

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to, you know, raise profits, I guess you could

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say it's a result of man's greed that brought

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this about. and how the original process of what

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it originally meant was lost. Nowadays, when

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people think of Valentine's Day, they think about

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going out of their way to spend their money for

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someone that they care about just to prove it.

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Going back to what I said before when I started

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this episode, you know, to each their own with

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that, but personally, I feel like this is just

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a waste of time and energy. If you truly care

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about someone, you should be doing this year

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round. And using only one day out of the year

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as an exception is unheard of. Now it's different

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if you're always working and you rarely get time

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to do this. And say your job lets you off for

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one specific day of the year and it just happens

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to be that day. Then I understand why you would

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want to do it on this day. But the fact still

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remains that people don't ever stop to consider

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what... What life would be like if you actually

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treated each other like that year round. Instead

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of just waiting for one day out of the year.

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Now if you don't make a lot of money this is

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understood. But I'm pretty sure if you care for

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each other enough y 'all can work around this.

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You know it doesn't have to be something amazing.

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You don't have to go to the mall. You don't have

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to go and spend money on fancy dinners or even

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flowers. You know. Now if. That's what your significant

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other wants or, you know, some new vehicle or

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something. That's fine. I'm not going to complain.

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But, you know, keep in mind that money isn't

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as common as it used to be. It's starting to

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get scarcer and scarcer as the economy is constantly

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dropping. So you want to save as much money as

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possible rather than spend. But that's another

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topic for another podcast. So again with this,

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you know, Enjoy your holiday. I hope you guys

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have a great rest of your day. For those who

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actually listened to this, if you chose to or

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not. And for those who didn't, you know, who,

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you know, who'd rather enjoy the day without

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knowing its history, that's fine. Again, this

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is food for thought. Thoughts if it were you.

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This is Neogentrix on the dark origin of Valentine's

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Day. If you like what you hear or you want to...

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subscribe or support this podcast do so on the

00:15:46.309 --> 00:15:49.669
anchor .fm website on my instagram or send me

00:15:49.669 --> 00:15:51.389
a letter of what you think are topics you would

00:15:51.389 --> 00:15:53.909
like me to cover later on on my facebook instagram

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twitter or snapchat i'll see you guys later and

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i hope you enjoy the rest of your day