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Monday, February 13,1989
Valentine traditions started
as pagan Roman celebration
By Stacey Babin
ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
For children, it’s a day of manda
tory card-giving, giggling and
S ames. For teen-agers, it’s a day of
irting, fix-ups anti fun. For college
students, it’s a day of laughter, love
and trying to top last year’s present.
St. Valentine’s Day has been cele
brated in many ways all across the
world for centuries. It is a day for
lovers to be united and f riends to be
remembered.
Despite the holiday’s name, St.
Valentine, did not begin these cus
toms.
The most common theory of the
origin of Valentine’s Day is that St.
Valentine, a bishop from Rome, was
imprisoned, beaten with clubs and
beheaded on Feb. 14 around the
year 270.
Valentine was a martyr — he
would not give up his religious
views. At the time, Romans were kill
ing Christians because of their new
religion.
There are two more “romantic”
stories about Valentine’s imprison
ment. One says that he cured the
jailer’s daughter of blindness and
the other says he fell in love with the
girl. He supposedly sent her a letter
signed “From your Valentine.”
St. Valentine is the patron saint of
engaged couples and those who
want to get married. Even lovers’
quarrels are under his guidance.
The true origin for St. Valentine’s
Day, it is believed, traces hack to the
Roman Lupercalia, which is a Feb
ruary feast in honor of the god Lu-
percus.
In one of the games at the feast,
young women put their names in a
box to be drawn out by the young
men. The young woman was then
supposed to be the love of the young
man for the next year.
When Christianity became the of
ficial religion of the Roman Empire,
they kept the holidays and customs
of the people, but adapted them to
their new beliefs. The Lupercalia
feast was renamed St. Valentine’s
Day, and the rules of the matchmak
ing game changed a little.
The names of saints and martyrs
replaced the names of hopeful
lovers in the box. The name the
young people drew was called their
“valentine,” and that saint’s virtues
had to be imitated for the year.
As early as the 14th century, the
custom had returned to its original
form. The tradition of sending ro
mantic or friendly messages, it is be
lieved, grew from this custom.
Some people believe that poets,
such as Chaucer, helped further the
romantic aspect of this holiday. In
the Middle Ages, many Europeans
thought birds mated on Feb. 14.
thought of as the creator of the
rhyming love lines enjoyed today on
cards. While imprisoned in the
Tower of London after the battle of
Agincourt in 1415, he sent his wife
valentine poems.
Samuel Pepys, a famous diarist,
says that in the 17th and 18th cen
tury, valentine gifts were common.
Rings and jewels often were given as
gifts by the rich.
Today, many people give heart-
the cards and then they will buy a
little token to show that they care.”
Debra Grasso, manager of Sum
mit Stationers in Post Oak Mall, said
that the number of people coming to
the store for valentines is different
than for other holidays.
She said people do not plan for
Valentine’s Day as they usually do
for Christmas.
“People will be standing in lines
with a handful of cards,” Grasso
said. “The average sale is about $15.
Chaucer writes about this mating
time, and associates it with love and
the pairing up of humans as well.
Valentine’s Day was much more
serious than a game in the 15th cen
tury. Many mothers saw this day as a
day full of promising romance and
eventual matrimony. Some mothers
even wrote letters to gentlemen to
tell them of their available daugh
ters.
Charles Due d’ Orleans is often
shaped boxes of candy and flowers.
Valentine’s Day means big business
for card shops and florists.
Barbara Mondile-Hebb, manager
at Gateway Hallmark Card Shop in
Post Oak Mall, said she considers
Valentine’s Day as profitable as
Christmas.
“Valentine’s Day is a unique holi
day,” Mondile-Hebb said. “There is
a difference in giving. People will
spend 15 to 30 minutes looking at
Graphic by Kelly Morgan
People are buying cards, plush ani
mals and the younger kids are buy
ing boxed cards.”
At Aggieland Flower and Gift
Shoppe, Manager Jimmie Walston
said Valentine’s Day is one of the
shop’s biggest holidays.
Walston said she is surprised that
the spring flowers are heavily com
peting with the traditional red roses
this year. However, a traditional
half-dozen arrangement of roses
leads the list of purchases, she said.
Homes tour
highlights
CS history
Give me a home to call my own
Family and friends to make it a
home
Love and kindness that ne’er will
depart
Enough to fill a thankful heart.
— from a hanging in the Shellen-
berger home
By Stacey Babin
ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
Old homes have a feeling
about them that is unmistakeable.
High ceilings, detailed woodwork
and long porches are just some of
the features that separate them
from today’s carbon-copy homes.
A feeling of family history is
present in the squeaky wood
floors and the old-timey bathtubs.
The Citizens for Historic Pres
ervation’s eighth annual Homes
Tour gave people an opportunity
to visit some of these old homes
and take a trip back in time.
CHP President Colleen Bat
chelor said education is the goal
of the tour.
“We encourage people to visu
alize what the old homes can look
like by showing what has been ac
complished,” Batchelor said. “We
want to show people what they
can do with an old home.”
Tour guides are all volunteers
and not paying members of the
organization, she said. Combin
ing such “friends” and members,
the group has more than 100 sup
porters.
The four homes on the tour
are in College Station.
Built in 1913, the home owned
by Bahman and Afsaneh Yaz-
dani, which was moved in 1984
from E. 23rd Street in Bryan to
902 Dexter Drive, blends the old
W'ith the new.
Yazdani prefers antiques, but
his wife has added contemporary
touches to the rooms. The home’s
decor is influenced by both east
ern and western Cultures.
Persian shawls and rugs accent
the dining room and kitchen.
The shawls have been used to
drape chairs and as a drape in
See homes/Page 17
Royal Shakespeare Company
bringing bard’s works to life
By Cray Pixley
ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
Theater in Great Britain often is
given the distinction of being the fin
est in the world. If that is true, stu
dents at Texas A&M and members
of the community will receive a
healthy dose of the best this week.
As part of the Alliance for Crea
tive Theatre, Education and Re
search, five alumni from diverse and
renowned British theater companies
will present several performances
and 35 workshops Monday through
Saturday. The visit is part of the Ag
gie Players’ fourth annual “Spring
Semester of Shakespeare.”
The ACTER’s main production
will be of William Shakespeare’s
King Lear, in which the five actors
will portray all the roles in the tra-
gedy.
“This is the third time that the
ACTER troupe has performed at
A&M,” Dr. Roger Schultz, Director
of Theatre Arts, says. “This is the
10th year of the ACTER, and they
visit 20 campuses around the coun
try each tour.”
In the ACTER’s previous produc
tions at A&M, they presented Shake
speare’s Measure For Measure in
1986 and The Tempest 'm 1987.
The troupe is part of an educatio
nal program sponsored by the Uni
versity of California at Santa Bar
bara.
“They (University of California),
have a number of educational and
theatrical endeavors, but ACTER is
probably the most well known and
the most exciting,” Schultz says.
“The ACTER performances have
been incredibly successful on this
campus, and we call early to tell the
ACTER office we are interested in a
visit.”
The company spends about a
week at each university perfdrming
and /conducting workshops. Rice
University, the University of Ne
braska, the University of Tennessee
and Memphis State University are
among the campuses the actors will
visit this year.
The departments in the College
of Liberal Arts, the Arts Council of
the Brazos Valley and the Texas
Commission on the Arts are spon
soring the ACTER visit.
Although the members have ex
tensive experience working with
Shakespeare’s plays, the ACTER
performances are not limited to his
works.
“In two separate events, one com
pany member will present a ‘one-
hander’, in which the actor will give
a one-man show featuring the works
of T.S. Eliot’s The Four Quartets
and another where an actor will pre
sent A Dash Through the Life Of
Byron,” Schultz says.
Also, a performance will feature
portions of the works of English
playwright Tom Stoppard.
The actors also will present
workshops throughout their stay at
A&M.
“The workshops are open to any
member of the community, but par
ticipation is limited to the class in
which they are performed,” he says.
“They are open with the stipulation
that the rooms cannot be over
crowded and that only those stu
dents enrolled in the class may par
ticipate. The others may observe.”
The workshops will cover what
ever material fits into the outline of
the course, he says.
“Most are during class periods,
and for example, one English class
workshop will deal with Shake
speare’s sonnets, and a modern lan
guages class will deal with Samuel
Becket’s Waiting For Godot, Schultz
says.
“The way the workshops are con
ducted will vary from actor to actor,”
Schultz says.
Information about the time and
location of the workshops can be ob
tained through the Department of
Speech Communications and The
ater Arts.
All of the ACTER members have
worked ii the theater, television,
film or radw and have compiled di
verse resumes.
Vivien Heilbron trained at the
London Academy of Music and Dra-
. mafic Art. She has worked in the
ater, film, television and radio. Heil
bron is the associate director of the
ACTER, and this is her third U.S.
tour as a member of the company.
Clifford Rose studied literature at
London University and performed
repetory theater until he joined the
Royal Shakespeare Company. Rose
appeared in the television mini-se
ries War and Rememberance.
Patti Love trained at the Central
School of Speech and Drama in Lon- .
don and has been a member of the
RSC, the National Theatre of Great
Britain and the Royal Court
Theatre. She also directs plays and
appeared in the film The Long
Good Friday.
Bernard Lloyd trained at the
Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and
has spent seasons with the RSC and
the National Theatre.
Geoffrey Church trained at the
Central School of Speech and
Drama in London and has been a
company member at the RSC and
the Royal Court Theatre.
The workshops and some perfor
mances of the ACTER repertoire
are free. Other performances will
have admission charges. A schedule
of performances follows:
• Feb. 14, T.S. Eliot’s The Four
Quartets
Heilbron in Eliot’s World War II
spiritual meditation reaffirming his
American and European “roots”.
The performance is in Blocker 102
at 8 p.m. Admission is free.
• Feb. 15, At His Lordship’s
Pleasure — A Dash Through the
Life of Byron
Lloyd in excerpts from Lord By
ron’s letters, journals and poetry, in
cluding Don Juan and Child Herold.
Dinner will be served at 7 p.m. and
the performance is at 8 p.m. at the
College Station Hilton. Admission is
$25.
• Feb. 16 and 18, King Lear
The performances are in Rudder
Theater at 8 p.m. Tickets are avail
able at the Rudder Box Office. Stu
dents and senior citizens seats are
$4.50, and general public seats are
$7.50.
• Feb. 17, An Evening With Tom
Stoppard
The production includes material
from Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
Are Dead, Jumpers and Travesties.
The performance is in Rudder The
ater at 8 p.m. Tickets are $4.50 for
A&M students and senior citizens
seats and $7.50 for the general pub
lic.
Chocolate has long
been the gift of love
By S. Hoechstetter
REVIEWER
It can take almost any form. A
rectangle, a mink coat, letters of
the alphabet, the Statue of Lib
erty, liquid, gum, chips, chunks,
powder or syrup. “It” is choco
late.
Chocolate.
Just reading the word makes
some people’s mouths water.
Some unlucky individuals may
break out or gain three pounds at
the mere thought of the sweet,
smooth substance that costs any
where from 50 cents for 1.5
ounces to $40 for one pound.
Valentine’s Day is the holiday
for giving gifts of flowers and
boxes of chocolate.
For centuries chocolate has
been thought to have aphrodisiac
powers.
Montezuma, ancient Emperor
of the Aztecs, would drink “the
food of the gods” from a golden
goblet before visiting his harem.
After drinking the bitter drink
made from chocolate beans and
sweetened by honey, vanilla and
spices, the emperor would throw
the goblet into the lake outside
his palace.
He may have been the original
“chocoholic,” because years after
his death a large pile of golden
goblets was found in the lake.
The Spanish conquistador
Hernan Cortes conquered Mon
tezuma and returned to Spain
with gold and cocoa beans. The
Spaniards kept chocolate a secret
from the rest of Europe until the
16th century.
Back then, chocolate was only
for the wealthy because it was im
ported from South America and
the European governments
placed high taxes on the bean.
Chocolate first arrived in
America in 1755 and was sold as a
drink for various medicinal pur
poses.
Today, health attitudes toward
chocolate have changed as much
as the forms in which it is served.
But that doesn’t seem to have
slowed the rate of chocolate con
sumption in the United States.
Americans eat about ten
pounds of chocolate per capita
each year, Hershey’s Public In
formation Manager Carl An
drews says.
Valentine’s Day is the fourth
largest chocolate-selling holiday
of the year. The largest selling
period is the back-to-school/Hal-
loween season, followed by
Christmas and Easter.
Hershey’s best-selling product
at this time of year is the
Hershey’s kiss wrapped in festive
red and white foil. But they’re
popular all year long too, An
drews says. At the Hershey’s
plant in Hershey, Pennsylvania
30 million kisses are made every
day.
As chocolate has become more
affordable, people have learned
more about the food of the gods
and have become more health
conscious at the same time.
There are other, more healthy
ways to express love at Valen
tine’s Day than by giving choco
late, says Scott & White Health
Education Coordinator and regis
tered dietician Sally Scaggs.
“Instead of giving chocolate
for Valentine’s Day you could
give flowers or jewelry — it
doesn’t disappear like chocolate
or die like flowers do,” Scaggs
says.
“If your loved one is going to
give you chocolate, either ask for
something else or don’t eat it all
in one day,” she advises.
Scaggs’ reasons for limiting
chocolate consumption are based
on dietary facts. Milk chocolate
has some calcium in it, but most
of the calories come from fat, she
says.
“If you’re trying to get 100 per
cent of the recommended daily
allowance of iron, you would
have to eat one pound of choco
late covered almonds, which
would have about 2,576 calories,”
she says.
About 70 percent of the cal
ories in chocolate covered al
monds comes from fat. U.S. di
etary suggestions recommend
that no more than 30 percent of
the daily calorie allowance should
come from fat.
Scaggs does not recommend
eating chocolate to get caffeine,
either. A chocolate bar can have
up to 25 milligrams of caffeine,
compared with coffee, which has
100 to 150 milligrams per cup.
She also says that chocolate has
no aphrodisiac or addictive qual
ities.
It may create pleasant feelings
for some people, but it won’t give
them special romantic powers,
she says.
“The food of the gods” is now a
multi-billion-dollar-a-year busi
ness which may be the secret to its
modern-day power.
The Hershey Chocolate Com
pany sold $2.4 billion worth of
chocolate in 1988.
From those figures, it would
seem that Americans’ hearts still
beat for chocolate in any form.
Photo by Dean Saito
Selections of chocolate and candies line the shelves at Skaggs
Alpha Beta in anticipation of Valentine’s Day shoppers.
Valentine customs show
difference in cultures,
change through centuries
By Stacey Babin
ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
Valentine’s Day has been cele
brated in many different ways, rang
ing from the mundane to the bi
zarre.
Some religious orders still use the
old custom of drawing saints’ names
for their valentines and imitating
that saint’s holy life for the year.
In England, it was once customary
for people to say “Good morning, ’tis
St. Valentine’s Day” when greeting
people.
The first person to say this ex
pected a present from the person to
whom it was said.
In 17th-century France, an equal
number of males and females wrote
down their names on two pieces of
paper and drew names.
This practice created many cou
ples, because each man had a woman
as a valentine and each woman had a
man as her valentine — so everyone
had two valentines.
The men, however, were sup
posed to stay closer to the women
who chose them, not the women
they chose.
In some early English colonies,
women were superstitious and
found various ways to win the love of
a man.
If a woman wanted her future
spouse to appear to her, she could
go to the graveyard on the night be
fore Valentine’s Day at midnight.
She then was supposed to sing a
chant and run around the church 12
times.
Supposedly, her lover would ap
pear to her the next day.
New York printer John Mc-
Loughlin is thought to have made
the first comic or “vinegar” valen
tines in the 1800s.
These valentines depicted “disa
greeable old maids” and fat and
skinny caricatures.
One read, “Dear Sir, you’re so
foppish, And scented so fine; I’ll not
have a man monkey. For my Valenti
ne.”