Valentine's Day Event ~ @skye_warren #kindle

..Welcome to the Valentine's Day Gift Hop as we celebrate love, sex, and all things books! The grand prizes for this hop include a Kindle Paperwhite and digital new adult romance basket! Every comment on every blog in the hop will count as an entry toward either of the grand prizes. So once you're done here on my page, be sure to visit the other links provided below. The more places you visit and comment at the better your chances of winning! I'm also giving away a $10 Amazon Gift Card so please read on & follow the directions below for entry for the prizes.
..The following bit about Valentine's Day I've posted before once upon a time, but I found it so interesting that I wanted to reshare. :)
......I did some poking around on the net to find out about the history of Valentine's Day and stumbled across this interesting tidbit at History.com: "Origins of Valentine's Day: A Pagan Festival in February ~ While some believe that Valentine's Day is celebrated in the middle of February to commemorate the anniversary of Valentine's death or burial--which probably occurred around A.D. 270--others claim that the Christian church may have decided to place St. Valentine's feast day in the middle of February in an effort to "Christianize" the pagan celebration of Lupercalia. Celebrated at the ides of February, or February 15, Lupercalia was a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, as well as to the Roman founders Romulus and Remus.
......"To begin the festival, members of the Luperci, an order of Roman priests, would gather at a sacred cave where the infants Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, were believed to have been cared for by a she-wolf or lupa. The priests would sacrifice a goat, for fertility, and a dog, for purification. They would then strip the goat's hide into strips, dip them into the sacrificial blood and take to the streets, gently slapping both women and crop fields with the goat hide. Far from being fearful, Roman women welcomed the touch of the hides because it was believed to make them more fertile in the coming year. Later in the day, according to legend, all the young women in the city would place their names in a big urn. The city's bachelors would each choose a name and become paired for the year with his chosen woman. These matches often ended in marriage."
..Whether or not you're into the holiday, you have to admit that information is intriguing, right? Perhaps it's a good thing that the holiday has been modified. Could you imagine the commercials for something like that? Go to your corner store and buy your goat today! With coupon you'll receive a free bowl!
..So, what do you think about what's above? How do you feel about this holiday? Love it? Like it? Hate it? Don't care one way or the other? Answer one or as many of those questions you want in the comment section (be sure to leave your name and email too) and you'll be entered for the grand prizes and my prize as well! Want some extra entries? Feel free to follow me at one or more of these locations (each follow earns you an extra entry for the $10 Amazon GC):
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..Here are the other blogs participating in this event. Like I mentioned above, the more places you visit and comment at, the more chances you have of winning! This event runs until the evening of Saturday, February 15, 2014. Have fun hopping!