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Topic: The Chit-Chat Thread

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ThanosReXXX

@NintendoByNature Concerning Valentine's Day: it's a real shame that modern society has to rip the heart (pun intended) out of everything and commercialize the heck out of it, because the true origins and essence of Valentine's Day is actually pretty interesting and couldn't have been more colorful and sincere if it tried.

You probably already know the gist of it, but just in case:

Valentine's Day, also called Saint Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is celebrated annually on February 14. Originating as a Western Christian feast day honoring one or two early saints named Valentinus, Valentine's Day is recognized as a significant cultural, religious, and commercial celebration of romance and romantic love in many regions around the world.

There are numerous martyrdom stories associated with various Valentines connected to February 14, including a written account of Saint Valentine of Rome's imprisonment for performing weddings for soldiers who were forbidden to marry and for ministering to Christians persecuted under the Roman Empire. According to legend, Saint Valentine restored sight to the blind daughter of his judge, and he wrote her a letter signed "Your Valentine" as a farewell before his execution. The Feast of Saint Valentine was established by Pope Gelasius I in AD 496 to be celebrated on February 14 in honour of the Christian martyr, Saint Valentine of Rome, who died on that date in AD 269.

The day first became associated with romantic love within the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer in the 14th century, when the tradition of courtly love flourished. In 18th-century England, it grew into an occasion in which couples expressed their love for each other by presenting flowers, offering confectionery, and sending greeting cards (known as "valentines"). Valentine's Day symbols that are used today include the heart-shaped outline, doves, and the figure of the winged Cupid. Since the 19th century, handwritten valentines have given way to mass-produced greeting cards. In Europe, Saint Valentine's Keys are given to lovers "as a romantic symbol and an invitation to unlock the giver's heart", as well as to children to ward off epilepsy (called Saint Valentine's Malady).

Although not a public holiday in any country, Saint Valentine's Day is an official feast day in the Anglican Communion and the Lutheran Church. Many parts of the Eastern Orthodox Church also celebrate Saint Valentine's Day on July 6 and July 30, the former date in honor of Roman presbyter Saint Valentine, and the latter date in honor of Hieromartyr Valentine, the Bishop of Interamna (modern Terni).

More details here, if that piqued your interest:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentine's_Day

Another interesting source I found, with a rather different explanation:

Valentine's Day is a time to celebrate romance and love and kissy-face fealty. But the origins of this festival of candy and cupids are actually dark, bloody — and a bit muddled.

Though no one has pinpointed the exact origin of the holiday, one good place to start is ancient Rome, where men hit on women by, well, hitting them.

Those Wild And Crazy Romans

From Feb. 13 to 15, the Romans celebrated the feast of Lupercalia. The men sacrificed a goat and a dog, then whipped women with the hides of the animals they had just slain.

The Roman romantics "were drunk. They were naked," says Noel Lenski, a historian at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Young women would actually line up for the men to hit them, Lenski says. They believed this would make them fertile.

The brutal fete included a matchmaking lottery, in which young men drew the names of women from a jar. The couple would then be, um, coupled up for the duration of the festival — or longer, if the match was right.

The ancient Romans may also be responsible for the name of our modern day of love. Emperor Claudius II executed two men — both named Valentine — on Feb. 14 of different years in the 3rd century A.D. Their martyrdom was honored by the Catholic Church with the celebration of St. Valentine's Day.

Later, Pope Gelasius I muddled things in the 5th century by combining St. Valentine's Day with Lupercalia to expel the pagan rituals. But the festival was more of a theatrical interpretation of what it had once been. Lenski adds, "It was a little more of a drunken revel, but the Christians put clothes back on it. That didn't stop it from being a day of fertility and love."

Around the same time, the Normans celebrated Galatin's Day. Galatin meant "lover of women." That was likely confused with St. Valentine's Day at some point, in part because they sound alike.

Edited on by ThanosReXXX

'The console wars are like boobs: Sony and Microsoft fight over which ones look the nicest and Nintendo's are the most fun to play with.'

Nintendo Network ID: ThanosReXX

ThanosReXXX

@Zuljaras All the comments I've seen about human interaction. But I was only half serious, obviously. Having said that, though, I'm more of a social, interactive person than most, and being highly empathic, it does somewhat irk me that people might feel a need to interact with others in a curt and forced manner.

Edited on by ThanosReXXX

'The console wars are like boobs: Sony and Microsoft fight over which ones look the nicest and Nintendo's are the most fun to play with.'

Nintendo Network ID: ThanosReXX

ThanosReXXX

@Zuljaras Life is hard, period.
But we live and learn, and we make do, and better make a good time of it while we're here, right?
Being angry at people and things, or wasting precious time and energy is hardly conducive to that.

Edited on by ThanosReXXX

'The console wars are like boobs: Sony and Microsoft fight over which ones look the nicest and Nintendo's are the most fun to play with.'

Nintendo Network ID: ThanosReXX

alpacatears

Funnily enough we actually have the heart of St Valentine in one of my local churches. I much prefer my romance to have a macabre twist so a visit to a dead saints heart in a golden box is always a fun date idea .

@ThanosReXXX Also just to add to the info from your links, the two are allegedly more joined than you might think. One of the theories is that the soldiers were actually partaking in Lupercalia, rather than a spate of weddings, which was outlawed by Claudius in order to bolster his forces and keep them in line. Valentine would then bless the successful unions after the festival ended.
All in all, there's a few different theories and we will never know the full truth but they do make for some interesting reading

alpacatears

ThanosReXXX

@alpacatears Lupercalia is indeed already mentioned in the links I posted, as are links to all of the other possible origins.

But yeah, the full truth will probably never be known. The Romans were pretty good/diligent with archiving events and history, but seeing as this isn't all inherently Roman, and some parts of the alleged story aren't exactly positive about the Romans, they may have wanted to censor and/or alter it to better fit their own narrative.

Edited on by ThanosReXXX

'The console wars are like boobs: Sony and Microsoft fight over which ones look the nicest and Nintendo's are the most fun to play with.'

Nintendo Network ID: ThanosReXX

alpacatears

@ThanosReXXX Ah no worries. I just read the quoted sections rather than the articles themselves as I'm just idly browsing while in work

alpacatears

ThanosReXXX

@alpacatears No offense taken, man.
Added an edit to the previous comment, btw.

'The console wars are like boobs: Sony and Microsoft fight over which ones look the nicest and Nintendo's are the most fun to play with.'

Nintendo Network ID: ThanosReXX

NotTelevision

@ThanosReXXX Ohh that’s some good memories there. Bet it was fun frustrating your friend who was the best at the game.

Goldeneye is really the stuff of legends. Lots of cursing and valuable lessons learned. Like “don’t bring a Klobb to a KF7 Soviet fight” and “screw whoever chose Oddjob”. The race to get each stage’s body armor was always a good laugh as well.

NotTelevision

ThanosReXXX

@NotTelevision Yeah, indeed. And to think all of that took place on a CRT TV the size of a small PC monitor, with each of us staring at a quarter of the screen, from 5 - 6 feet away, sitting on a couch. With modern screen sizes, you can hardly imagine that worked, let alone trying to explain that to kids nowadays...

'The console wars are like boobs: Sony and Microsoft fight over which ones look the nicest and Nintendo's are the most fun to play with.'

Nintendo Network ID: ThanosReXX

bimmy-lee

@NotTelevision - It was the 64 version of Rainbow Road, but I don’t think anyone ever proved themselves to be sober because you probably have to be inebriated to think that only falling off the track three times into the abyss of space could actually prove you’re sober. We walked almost everywhere in college anyway. It was part of the fun.

@ThanosReXXX - Haha, yeah, multiplayer 64 is hilarious to look back on now. To think it seemed like the height of technology too! Multiplayer with the 64 is still the most fun I’ve ever had playing games though. No doubt it was because of my time and place when it was relevant, but that doesn’t change the fact that I had a ridiculous amount of fun with that machine.

Edited on by bimmy-lee

limby-bee was a jerk.

My Nintendo: RedNestor

NotTelevision

@bimmy-lee Haha. Yeah that definitely doesn’t pass the test. Sounds like you and your friends lived close to each other in a dorm or apartment so that’s convenient.

NotTelevision

NotTelevision

It’s know it’s for the best, but everything except the supermarket, McDonald’s, KFC, and 7-11 is closed in this city because of the coronavirus. A week ago seemed a bit livelier on the streets but now it’s lights out everywhere while everyone hibernates in their apartments. Feel like I should’ve returned to the US for the holiday now, but I didn’t realize it would come to this.

Novels and video games are proving useful.

NotTelevision

NotTelevision

@ThanosReXXX Yeah it didn’t seem like a big deal at the time, but now those games do look rough. Anytime there was an explosion your player moved in slow motion 😂. Those FPS games were really pushing the poor 64 to its limit.

Combining that with the small square allotted to you on the CRT and I don’t think kids nowadays would be able to fathom that.

Will make a really good “Well in my day...” story when we’re all curmudgeonly old folks.

Edited on by NotTelevision

NotTelevision

bimmy-lee

@NotTelevision - That has to be so weird. I saw a picture yesterday of an older couple out grocery shopping in a near empty store while wearing, basically, hazmat gear. It was very post apocalyptic. Best of luck to you.

limby-bee was a jerk.

My Nintendo: RedNestor

Eel

Backstory: man goes crazy and kills his wife. In his craze he skins the body, because why the hell not. Sick person #2 (probably a police person or the family of one) uploads detailed picture of the body to Facebook.

Situation: my mom is shocked that someone could do someone so disgusting, both, the murder, and uploading the photo for everyone to see. People shouldn't upload that to Facebook.

Her solution: show it to everybody and complain people shouldn't share those things.

TL;DR: I need eye bleach

Edited on by Eel

Bloop.

<My slightly less dead youtube channel>

SMM2 Maker ID: 69R-F81-NLG

My Nintendo: Abgarok | Nintendo Network ID: Abgarok

NintendoByNature

@bimmy-lee i would. It's only about 5 hours so you can fly through it. And thanks, you too. We Might go out Saturday since she works Friday..

NintendoByNature

Anti-Matter

@Eel
Quick, watch My Little Pony, a lot of Rainbow, Sugar and Cupcake to heal your brain from disturbing experience !

Anti-Matter

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