Valentine's Day Maxis Content

[ZephyrZodiac]

Didn't dare use it in my previous set of game files, as I'd already got a load of custom skins, so this historical set has been the first opportunity  (did I say historical?  Since it's Veronaville, add fantasy!) So I now have some pale blue elves (Starrats at TSZ), some dark blue elves and some paleskinned elves!  Can't wait to see what happens if they intermarry!  (Just wish if you mixed a blue skin with an alien one you could get turquoise babies!)  But at least, since they are elves, they don't have to keep having the same set of victorian longjohns! 

[angelyne]

I did a search on Lupercalia and came up with this tidbit.  Any guess on why the "new" custom never did catch on ?

One of these [Lupercalia customs] was a lottery where the names of available maidens were placed in a box and drawn out by the young men. Each man accepted the girl whose name he drew as his love - for the duration of the festival, or sometimes  longer.

As Christianity began to slowly and systematically dismantle the pagan pantheons, it frequently replaced the festivals of the pagan gods with more ecumenical celebrations. It was easier to convert the local population if they could continue to celebrate on the same days... they would just be instructed to celebrate different people and ideologies..

Lupercalia, with its lover lottery, had no place in the new Christian order. In the year 496 AD, Pope Gelasius did away with the festival of Lupercalia, citing that it was pagan and immoral. He chose Valentine as the patron saint of lovers, who would be honored at the new festival on the fourteenth of every February. The church decided to come up with its own lottery and so the feast of St. Valentine featured a lottery of Saints. One would pull the name of a saint out of a box, and for the following year, study and attempt to emulate that saint.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Wow, that last bit sounds like FUN!   Oh, how times have changed, I guess today's youth would need a lottery based on Pop Idols or Football heroes, and then try to emulate them!

In line with what you've posted, did you know that the church had so much difficulty persuading the norsemen to accept the idea that Christ rose from the dead they actually (secretly) rewrote some of the sagas!

[cabelle]

Considering that they sort of "took over" previously pagan holidays and built their churches right on top of sites where the pagans would worship I'm not surprised. It gives the appearance that the church was a bit desperate for followers.

[Renatus]

Maybe they were desperate, but appropriating the culture and religion of the people one was trying to take over wasn't without precedent - it worked quite well with the Romans. They pretty much took Greek culture wholesale, rubbed out some details and painted them over with their own, and there they were! The Aztecs did something similar with the Toltecs, although I think with them it was just intermarrying until the Toltecs were mostly Aztec.

[nectere]

What's even more interesting is if you go a bit further back in history on how the festival began and why, one of the things that I found interesting is that in earlier times before the lottery came is that on February 15, the Luperci, so named the brothers of the wolf (who were Romulus and Remus, which in itself is yet another intriguing story - side note I have several ancient coins from a dig featuring the brothers from this era), dressed in only goatskin and during Lupercalia, a dog and two male goats were sacrificed as an act of purification as they were then anointed with the blood and it was wiped off with the wool from the goat that was dipped in its milk, then they donned the skins of the sacrificed goat. (Which is rather interesting if you look into some of the Jewish customs about not mixing blood and milk and all that, because this was considered a pagan ritual and thus you should have no part of it in any form) Anyway they ran around this area where the festival took place with straps of leather from the skins, which were called Februa, and women would line up along the way to be hit by these guys with the straps because it was thought to ensure fertility by purifying them. Thus, is where the month of February gets its name, which the root of February means to purify.

So valentines day was really something quite different than what it is today. I don't quite get the connection of the lottery to the original festival, but like many festivals, customs were borrowed from various practices and I suppose that is how it came to be, a conjoining of customs...and then the Roman Christians took over and decided that these customs were a bit too pagan but they didn't want to alienate everyone so that took pieces of it and added on to it to try to put a religious spin on it and give it an accepted spiritual purpose.

Now of course it is far removed from what it was and means very little.

[radiophonic]

Which would contradict the fact that it was women who created Valentines day wouldnt it? To also note that in fact it was a man that sent out the first "valentines" to his wife expressing his love for her while he was imprisioned...guess he didnt want her to forget about him during the Lupercalia festival...heh.

No, but it brings the argument closer to a state of reductio ad absurdum.

Regardless of who "started" the "holiday", who is more likely to expect a gift on Valentine's Day, a man or a woman?

[nectere]

Valentine's Day is a woman's "holiday" created by women who create cards for other special female occasions.
Thank you Hallmark for giving us this special day.

I was merely commenting on the above bolded part. And I wouldnt know, I have never been in a relationship on valentines day, I or life always finds a way to make sure I am single, usually during the entire month of February. Not that I care, but it is annoying having to deal with all the women in my office who gush over the fact that someone "cares enough to send the very best".

bleh.

[Renatus]

Regardless of who "started" the "holiday", who is more likely to expect a gift on Valentine's Day, a man or a woman?

That depends on the country and culture one is from, doesn't it?

I guess among Americans, the 'typical' woman expects candy and/or flowers, and the 'typical' man expects to recieve blowjobs and/or vaginal sex... both of them expect something, so what's the beef? 

I don't know. I think whining over it is dumb. I think it'd be great if everyone would take V day as an excuse to spread some love around regardless of one's relationship status - volunteer at a soup kitchen or an animal shelter or a school or anything to get one's mind off of the self-pity train.

[Batelle]

Regardless of who "started" the "holiday", who is more likely to expect a gift on Valentine's Day, a man or a woman?

My boyfriend bought us a sidecar for his motorcycle, so I can ride with him without freaking out (I'm  huge wimp, I'm sorry).  This is the first Valentine's day I've been attached, but I was never a bitter single girl choosing instead to look forward to the post Valentine's Day sell on chocolate. 

All this talk about holidays and Christians stealing bits from the pagans and whatnot reminds me of a very funny comedian named Eddie Izzard who riffs a bit on the topic. 

"kids eat chocolate eggs, because of the color of the chocolate, and the color of the... wood on the cross...And the bunny rabbits! Where do they come into the crucifixion? There were no bunny rabbits up on the hill going, "Hey, what, are you going to put those crosses in our warrens? We live below this hill, all right?" Bunny rabbits are for shagging, eggs are for fertility. It's a festival - it's the spring festival!"

[Issy]

Well, the teddy is kind of cute, the painting not so bad.  The glasses and hairdo is horrible :/  

Personally I think the women give out more gifts, or like to.  Men tend to get a lil lazy when buying gifts imo.

[BeckerCheez]

Last year was my first Valentine's day with a boyfriend, and we splurged on gifts.  This year we're going to make each other something.   

I downloaded the glasses, and I'm thinking about downloading the teddy...can never have too many teddys...   The pj's are atrocious.   

[PlaidSquirrel]

My guy and I go away for V-day weekend every year instead of doing gifts. I love it! For the first 3 V-days we went to a gorgeous restaurant in an old historic house on the lake but then they closed down. That restaurant has since re-opened as a B&B but we decided not to go since it is in a city we know like the backs of our hands. One year we went and stayed at a mountain top hotel and it snowed and it was beautiful. We can never go back there because it couldn't possibly be as good as that again. So each year we go somewhere new. It's kind of exciting.

We aren't married but on our first Valentines together I kissed him for the very first time. It was not our first date and we went to the afore mentioned gorgeous retaurant. He swept me off my feet I guess. So anyway it is the closest thing we have to an anniversary and we go all out.

[MutantBunny]

Thanks Simsbaby. i woulda missed them.

[Regina]

I think the glasses are cute, but most of it's horrid.  I wouldn't mind the hairstyle, but not for 10 megs.  Maybe later...much later.

[Simsbaby]

Now the Kürt Rogiers file is hidden, did anyone save the download link? I want to see what it is.

[skandelouslala]

Wow..that stuff sucks.

[Karen]

What a bunch of useless crap!  The only thing that looked even slightly interesting was the teddy bear, and that's just a recolor of the existing object, isn't it? 

The antenna hair is just stupid, in my opinion.  We're all hoping for more variety in hair meshes, and this is what they give us?  Yuck.  Let's hope the meshes in OFB are a lot better than that.

Karen

[J. M. Pescado]

Hey, at least someone can easily modify it to give aliens antennae.

[ZephyrZodiac]

That's a thought!!!  But of course they should then be BALD with antennae.

[Simsbaby]

The only thing that looked even slightly interesting was the teddy bear, and that's just a recolor of the existing object, isn't it?

Nope, the one that comes with the game has only pants, this one has pants and a shirt.

[Emma]

Uhh the hairstyle is horrible-I put it in my game, and deleted it....even my sims aren't that tacky!
The undies look a lot better in game than the picture shows, there are a few colour options with them...but they have sandals on! Kinda spoils them. The glasses are hideous, and don't look right with any face shape really, they cut into the cheeks! The wall art is horrible too....honestly the best thing is the teddy, and even that is just a recolour of the original teddy with a t-shirt added on! I've said it before and I'll say it again...bag of crap...

[ZephyrZodiac]

I've got far nicer teddies from elsewhere!

[Emma]

Me too Zeph! I love the dolls that someone on MTS2 made too...can't remember who it was though.

[JenW]

Aw, I sorta like the antennae (I'm sure I spelled that wrong) but I wish they were an accessory rather than hair. I had some like that when I was little, but mine were gold glitter stars I think they're kind of cute. I forgot to look at them in the game, are they available for kids?