THE ORIGIN OF VALENTINE'S DAY Katie Hammond Have you jars. Each young man would then draw Staff Writer ever won­ a slip, and the girl whose name was on dered . if the slip of paper was to be his sweetheart Valentine's for the year. Day was created by . somebody in According to legend, this holiday is Ha11mark, trying to make an excuse for named after the priest Valentine. 4t a people to buy for their loved ones? TIlis time when Christianity was a new reli­ is not the case. Instead, this holiday has gion, Valentine was a priest in Rome. a very interesting origin that you may Claudius n, the Emperor at that time, not knOw. ordered the Roman soldiers not to marry Valentine's Day is a holiday that actu­ or become engaged. TIlis ruler belieVed ally originates from Lupercalia, an that as married men, his soldiers would ancient Roman feast. It has been said rather stay at home with their families that fierce wolves roamed nearby woods than fight in wars. Valentine defied this in these early days of Rome. Out of des­ conunand and secretly married young peration, the Romans called upon couples. He was eventually arrested, Lupercus to keep the wolves away. A fes­ imprisoned, and put to death.- tival held in honor of Lupercus was actu­ Valentine was beheaded on February ally celebrated on February 15th. 14th, the eve of the Roman holiday Because their calendar was different at Lupercalia. Valentine was named a saint that time, the festival was celebrated as a after his death. As Rome became more spring festival, with February faDing in Christian, the priests moved the spring early springti.xru holiday from the 15th to the 14th - A custom of young people was name Valentine ' s Day. The holiday now hon- drawing. On the night of the festival of . ors Saint Valentine instead of Lupercus. Luperca1ia, Roman girls would write their names on slips of paper and· place them in THE LANGUAGE OF LOVE COLD SHOWERS NO MORE • •• Want to tell someone that you love him or her? You have no excuse to Latin - Te amo hold back your true feelings. Learn DOME HAS NEW OMBUDSMAN with regard to the hot water short­ how to say "I love you" in some vari- Pakistani - Mujhe Tumse Muhabbat age. He acted quickly and was able -ous languages and tell someone how Hai to send the necessary personnel to you feel today: . Daniel Pfeiffer completed more than eight semes­ investigate, whom quickly did Persian - Tora dost daram Staff Writer ters of coursework excluding sum­ determine that there was indeed a Danish - Jeg elsker dig mer", 6. "may be granted by associ­ problem. I was assured that the Pig Latin - Ie Ovele Ouye According to Widener ate Dean of residence life for extra­ necessary steps such as turning up Dutch - Ik hou van lou University ' s U ndergrad uate ordinary personal reasons or when the temperature and checking the Polish - Ko.cham Cie Student handbook, 6,810 little it is in the interest of the universi­ -mixing valves were being taken. English - I love you green portraits of George ty", 7. "when deemed necessary Another informal poll conducted Portuguese - Amo-te Washington are what the [through an on-campus lottery]". the a few days later yielded not a Filipino - Mahal ka ta University requires to live in "(ann This places the majority of students single cold shower, and numerous Romanian - Te iu besc hall. Located on the southeastern in the position of being forced to exasperated responses that French - Je t 'aime end of campus smack dab in the live on-campus. described the water temperature as Russian - Ya vas liubliu Recently, it came to the attention "pleasantly scalding". German - Ich liebe Dich middle of the notoriously rowdy Spanish - Te amo area known as "the quads" (com­ of the DOME that Cann was suf­ This experience has led to the fering from a lack of hot water. An Hawaiian - Aloha I ' a Au Oe prised of Turrell, Howell, Cann, creation of anew Ombudsman col­ Swedish - Jag a'1skar dig 'Thayer and Hanna halls), Cann is informal poll taken by a DOME umn in the DOME. This column is Hebrew - Ani ohev otach reporter of 40 residents of Cann designated a freshman dorm. meant for any member of the (male to female) 'Thai - Phom Rak Khun Widener does require that students hall yielded responses raging from Widener community to write, call, (male to f) reside on campus unless granted 1 to 14 cold showers a week. The or e-mail the DOME with a com­ Hebrew - Ani ohevet otcha commuter status, an exemption median number of cold showers plaint that they believe has been (female to male) 'Thai - Ch 'an Rak Khun allowed only if a student meets one was 5 and not a single person was not been addressed properly. The (f to male) of the following requirements: able to claim O. DOME will review the complaint Hungarian - Szeretlek l."lives at home with parents or A quick visit to housing directed and inquire using it's substantial Turkish - Seni Seviyurum legal guardians and within a rea­ me to maintenance. The resulting media pull as it sees fit. Indonesian - Saya cinta padamu sonable distance",2."is married", series of phone calls to Carl Pierce Everything from major basic ser­ Ukrainian - ja tebe koKHAju 3."is 24 years of age or older", 4. "is (the chief of maintenance) revealed vices failure (hot water, heating, Italian - ti amo a veteran with at least two years of that no work order had ever been electricity) to a broken candy Vietnamese - Toi yeu em active military service", 5. "has placed by · a single Resident machine qualifies. Japanese - Kimi 0 ai shiteru Assistant during the past semester Korean - Tangsinul sarang ha yo Welsh - 'Rwy' n dy gara di Student Counting Spotlight!!! Crows Review PRO BOWU!! Page B3 Page B1 Page B4 Page 2 Widener University: .The Dome February 11, 2000 SOCIAL MISCONCEPTIONS [)lJP.JIN-IJO N ABOUT LOVE E~ew<m\\MG ~LO~Ef\ti ... Brian O'Rourke - As we draw near to . + .... Editor in Chief Valentine 's Day, a day that . can be either extremely Y. enjoyable or lltterly devastating, I figured I'd convey my opinion about love. There are many preconceived notions floating through our culture abou~ love, and I think many of them are fallacious. Unfortunately, these false concepts of love poison many people's minds, making their quest to find their "true love" extremely difficult, if not impos­ sible. I will first tell you what love is, before I tell you what it is not To love is "to value," in the broadest sense of the word. Ths deftnition applies to all senses of the word love: a man who love.s Mozart values his highly elaborate musical forms, a man who loves his wife values her exis­ .~-AtL tence; etc.: We-"love" many things: great books, beautiful T~E.,. paintings, inventions, songs, comedies, etc; anything can ."";; c·, l .... be loved by human. beings. There are degrees of loving things: I love to write my opinion column more than I love to eat a candy bar; in other words, I value the process of writing, of expressing myself, more than I . v~lue indulging mY .stomach and palate. With that general defI~tion in mind, I move to the motivations behind love. Man, as the rational ani'ma1, does not blindly love things. Man is the only creature capable of romantic love. Why? What is common to all men and ~parates man from the rest of the animals? His ability to conceptua1ize the world around him; in short, his ability to reason. Love, or any sense of values, only springs from '. f~Y~~s, ..S~XER~( :. Sourn 1! ~~ : ~S · TI:lAT·: the ability to reasbn. -, There are reasons why man loves things. In this sense, TOO MUCH TO ASK? love is not blind. We do not love something that runs counter to our own personal values. I believe man is a heroic, efficacious, noble being capable of great things; MIchael Roakes It puzzles me without having to travel anywhere. Some of Stanley Cup and NBA Championship. Also, therefore, any book or movie that would portray him as Staff Writer why Widener their away games are on UPN, NBC (Sixers), I wouldn't mind watching various shows such I tend to love. I don't think that man is born evil, 1 and movies on Comedy Central. 1bese two does not allow and FOX (Flyers). Last year I followed both don 't think that man is corrupt, I don't think that all of teams through the playoffs by reading about channels are not premium channel and are us to have Comedy Central and the Comeast life is futile and vain; therefore, I detest anything or any­ Network in all of the dorms on campus. I the games in the newspapers the day· after. I included in many college campuses as well one that would claim these things: the story of the "fall" love watching the 'FIyers and ~ix~;.s· , ' nome ' was and stilt' am disappoi~ted a1~ng V;ith • ~ ~s ' homes for no additi; nai charge. • ... I" • in the Bible, Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett, etc. games on the Comeast Channel at home. I many other students at Widener. After last TV is not a priority in my life. However, If love is not blind, as I assert, then love is not given also like to watch The Man Show and South year, I thought that maybe t~ would have following sports and laughing is.