Dorothy Brush "Random Thoughts" Published Feb. 8, 2006

Matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match

Shelves filled with valentine cards are emptying fast. If you don't have your supply, now is the time to act. Depending on your age, valentines carry a message of love to be or love that was. Sentimental messages express hope that the sender and receiver are two people with hearts in tune with each other.

Long before there was a Valentine's Day couples recognized love was in the air if their hearts beat faster when they were near each other. In very early human history the heart's reaction was not the final arbiter in the union of a man and woman.

The first people lived in nomadic kinship groups led by patriarchal chiefs. Women were not allowed to leave their clan unless the chief gave his permission and men could not take a wife unless the chief gave his OK. In the first century B.C. marriage was a transaction between two chiefs.

As societies settled in more stable communities they still clung to the custom of arranged marriages. Chiefs were replaced by intermediaries or go-betweens who advised the family on which two people should marry. Heartbeats were given no consideration. Arranged marriages were accepted by a majority of the world and a new profession, that of matchmaker, was born.

Two great Broadway hits featured this important talent. Remember that delightful tune "Matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match" from Fiddler on the Roof? In Hello Dolly it was Dolly, a widowed, turn-of-the-century matchmaker, who found her own match.

Matchmakers are still with us. No longer are they a trusted friend of the family seeking a suitable mate for a son or daughter. Today, parents are bypassed and men or women seeking a mate turn to the Internet. There they find a long list of companies that provide photos and information on others looking for mates.

Feb. 14 took on a special meaning in 496 when Pope Gelasius named that date as St. Valentine's Day. It was his answer to the pagan festival of Lupercalia celebrated by pre-Christian Romans on Feb. 15 to honor Juno, the goddess of women and marriage. The Christian message of love differed from the pagan interpretation of love during their festivities.

The pope chose Valentine as the name in remembrance of two priests who disobeyed Roman Emperors and were executed in February. The first Valentine was beheaded because he had converted a Roman family to Christianity in A.D. 273. The second Valentine secretly performed marriages between soldiers and their loves in defiance of the rule that soldiers could not marry.

Valentine was thrown in prison and he fell in love with the jailer's daughter. Before his execution in A.D. 270, he wrote her a letter of love and farewell. It was signed "from your Valentine."

St. Valentine's Day was given little thought for a span of about 800 years. Feb. 14 was given new life when the English author Chaucer wrote in 1300 that the 14th was the day the birds chose their new spring mates. From that time on St. Valentine's Day grew in importance.

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Dorothy Copus Brush is a Fairfield Glade resident and Crossville Chronicle staffwriter whose column is published each Wednesday. She may be reached at ebrush@frontiernet.net