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Ten Out-of-the-Ordinary Valentine’s Day Customs
非同寻常的十大情人节习俗
◎ By Mark Strauss 译 / 夏辉
From the festivals of ancient Rome to modern public awareness campaigns,
the holiday hasn’t always been about roses and candy. Now let’s look at the
following ten out-of-the-ordinary customs.
1. Ballot1) Box: In ancient Rome, when Valentine’s Day was still a pagan2)
festival, young women would put their names in a box, to be randomly chosen by
men—who, according to one account, “paid particular attention to the young women
whose name they drew.” Early Christian leaders tried to discourage the practice
by substituting saints’ names for women’s, but the tradition persisted.
A traveler’s diary from the early 18th century notes: “On the eve of St
Valentine’s Day… An equal number of maids and bachelors get together; each
writes his or her true or some feigned name upon separate billets3), which they
roll up, and draw by way of lots4), the maids taking the men’s billets, and the
men the maids’ … Fortune having thus divided the company into so many couples,
the valentines give balls and treats to their mistresses and wear their billets
several days upon their bosoms5) or sleeves.”
2. Gloves & Love: Prior to the Elizabethan era6), gloves were worn
almost exclusively by men. But, by the late 16th century, gloves became a
traditional Valentine’s Day gift for women. In fact, it became custom for a
young woman to approach her man of choice7) and utter the verse: “Good-morrow
Valentine, I go today/To wear for you, what you must pay/A pair of gloves next
Easter Day.” Having thus been ambushed, the man was expected to send the woman a
gift of gloves to wear on Easter Sunday8). Sometimes men sent women gloves
without an invitation. If the lady wore the gloves on Easter, it was a sign that
she favored the gentleman’s romantic overtures.
3. Sweet Dreams: In the 1700s, rural Englishwomen would pin five bay9)
leaves to their pillows—four on the corners, one in the middle—on the evening
before Valentine’s Day. By doing so, it was said, they would see their future
husbands in their dreams. A variation of this tradition called for women to
sprinkle10) bay leaves with rosewater and lay them across their pillows. “When
you go to bed put on a clean nightgown turned wrong side outwards,” reads one
folkloric account, “and, lying down, say these words softly to yourself: ‘Good
Valentine, be kind to me. In dreams let me my true love see.’ ”
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4. Sing Out Loud: In the 18th and 19th centuries, British children
celebrated Valentine’s Day by going door to door, singing songs and sometimes
begging for treats, such as fruit, pennies and cakes. Folklorists and historians
have preserved the lyrics of some of these tunes: “Morrow, morrow,
Valentine/I’ll be yourn11) if you’ll be mine/Please to us a Valentine”; and
“Good morning, Valentine/Curl your locks12) as I do mine/Two before and three
behind/So good morning, Valentine.”
5. Leaps of Love: In the 19th century, Valentine’s Day cards in the United
States and Britain began capitalizing on13) the tradition of “Leap Day”—the one
day, every four years, when proper14) society permitted women to propose
marriage. As the British magazine Punch15) observed in 1872: “This being Leap
Year, if a single gentleman receives a Valentine from a single lady, and can
trace the sender through the Post-office, he will be entitled to consider her
missive16) as equivalent to a proposal of marriage, and to accept it, if the
lady can give satisfactory references as to property, connections, temper,
accomplishments, and ability to manage a modern mansion.”
Satirists had a field day17) writing about the terror of single men. An
1880 leap-year poem mused: “Maidens’ dissembling day; Bachelors’ trembling day;
Men walk in trouble and fear; Girls run and skip about, daintily18) trip about;
Knowing St. Valentine’s here.”
6. Poisoned Pens: Not all Valentine’s Day cards celebrated love. During the
1840s and 1850s—as caricatures19) emerged as a popular art form—so too did
demand for satirical cards. Even by today’s standards, the imagery was bawdy20),
and, at their worst, these “mock Valentines” were a petty excuse for cruelty.
“They lampooned21) people of all trades and professions; they stereotyped racial
and ethnic groups, especially African-Americans and the Irish,” writes Leigh
Eric Schmidt, currently a professor of American religious history at Princeton
University. “Women were a particular target of attack valentines. Widows, old
maids, loud or assertive22) women, flirts and coquettes were standard subjects
of misogynistic23) derision24)…. Intractable, willful, or publicly active women
were portrayed as devils, snakes, tigers, or hissing cats.”
The “mock Valentine” craze eventually waned—but not before an 1860 column
in the New York Times bemoaned that, in recent years, “St. Valentine’s votaries
ceased to be poets and became buffoons25) and his pleasant missives were
degraded into vulgar vehicles of silly caricature and indecent
impertinence26).”
7. Eat Your Heart Out: French women traditionally have relied on subtle
culinary27) cues to signal their amorous28) intentions. The July 1956 issue of
the journal Western Folklore reported: “a young maid lets her swain29) know
whether the answer is ‘yes’ or ‘no’ by what she feeds him on St. Valentine’s
Day. It’s a custom that goes back for centuries. Any egg dish, for example,
definitely means No! On the other hand, an apple or pear means Yes!”
8. Role Reversal: After an executive at the Mary Chocolate Company
introduced Valentine’s Day to Japan in 1957, an error in translation led
Japanese marketers to believe that tradition called for women to send chocolate
candies to men. Now, “Many Japanese consider Valentine’s Day the one occasion in
which women are allowed the greatest amount of personal expression,” writes
Millie Creighton, an associate professor in the department of anthropology and
sociology at the University of British Columbia. “A high-ranking official at one
department store asserts, ‘This is the only day girls can express their feelings
very openly.’ ”
9. On the March: Every year since 2003, the human rights group Women of
Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) has held peaceful demonstrations on Valentine’s Day,
demanding access to education, health care and an end to government oppression
of activists. Dressing in red and white outfits, they distribute paper roses and
cards with messages such as, “Defend your right to love and let love overcome
hate. Defend all your rights and stand up for the truth.”
10. To Your Health: In recent years, Valentine’s Day has emerged as an
occasion for public health education. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control seek
to raise awareness about heart disease, with e-cards that read: “Valentine, dear
Valentine, My heart beats just for you. To keep our hearts beating, Let’s walk a
mile or two.” (Hey, they’re doctors, not
poets.)
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发表于 2016-7-10 18:32:12