As the rumor goes, Valentines Day was a holiday created by Hallmark to save itself. This rumor, from my research, is actually false. Valentines Day was actually a pagan celebration day to honor Juno, the queen of the Gods. A celebration would ensue the days after where young boys and girls would draw by lottery names of the opposite sex. They would then be paired with the partner they drew, and would spend their time together during the festival. Many of them courted each other after the conclusion of the festival and some would eventually marry. Pretty neat huh.

Fast-forward to around 270 AD, Emperor Claudius II of Rome was having problems enlisting men to join the service. Convinced that men across his country were wimps because they wanted to stay home with their wives, Claudius banned people from getting married. St. Valentine, a Christian priest, didn't abide and secretly married couples. He was caught and executed on February 14th.

The Roman Catholic Church eventually merged the two celebrations together. Since they wanted to get rid of the celebration of Juno, a pagan worship day, they basically took Juno's day and called it St. Valentine's day, to celebrate Christian Martyrs, and love.

Where does the naked fat angel with the bow-n-arrow come into play? That I have no idea...

Now lets jump to the topic of love and marriage. So what does it take to create a great marriage? There is a cliche out there that says "All you need is love..." and to a certain extent, I believe that to be somewhat accurate. But I was always believed that you needed more than just love to get married.

See, to me, love is defined purely as a commitment, and nothing more. It's not an emotion, or a feeling, as those things come and go. Commitments though, last forever...or should last forever. Therefore, I believe love should by synonymous with the word commitment in my eyes. Lets just say it's a very deep level of commitment. So is that enough to create a great marriage? Probably not. Many times it takes love PLUS similar values, senses of humor, goals, even sometimes the same political or religious views to make a great marriage. Take for example...me. I'm single, and even if I love someone, if they are an Obama loving person who worships Satan and doesn't laugh at my jokes, it probably won't work out...

Do we all agree with me or not? If you don't, well...oh well. I can't do anything about it. Maybe I'll charge you more for your wedding! hahaha.