“The Origin of Holidays”
Today’s lecture was the Origin of Holidays by teacher Sam. At first, I listened to the story of Saint Valentine’s Day. When it comes to Valentine’s Day, I think about many chocolates . But this has nothing to do with neither chocolates nor dates.
A long time ago, young men couldn’t marry before they finished being in the army for 20 years. But But Valentine thought it was bad and didn’t follow the law and he continued to marry young men and women. Of course the emperor was upset. Valentine was arrested and thrown into prison. One day he healed the blind daughter of the prison guard with the power of God. She’d fallen in love with him and asked her father to save his life. Bu finally was killied. He wrote “from your Valentine” at the end of the letter to her. There were many letters. It was common to send cards and flowers in St. Valentine’s Day! After that I listened to the Origin of Easter and Carnival but my favourite origin of holiday is April fools.
Pope Gregory XII I changed the date of New Year from the 1st April to 1st January in 1562. People living in villages didn’t know about it because communication was slow in those days. These villagers celebrated New Year on 1st April. People from city enjoyed seeing them. “ New Year is the 1st January! How stupid!”
They really enjoyed playing jokes on 1st April. It’s interesting for me. I like black jokes so when it comes to 1st April I want to do something naughty!
By Ai Taguchi – Academic Year Programme