Love bug bites campus

Daniel Stough and Elana Rothenberg met at Pitt, have been dating since October and even though… Daniel Stough and Elana Rothenberg met at Pitt, have been dating since October and even though Valentine’s Day falls on a Tuesday this year, they want to make sure they spend time together.

Yesterday, the freshman couple spent the afternoon making Valentine’s Day cards at Pitt Program Council’s card-making table.

Stough crafted a small pink card for his mother, but made sure to acknowledge his true valentine.

“This is my valentine,” Stough said motioning to Rothenberg, “but you have to recognize mom. It’s not like [Elana] won’t get one! Maybe someone planned ahead.”

Rothenburg giggled and went back to work on her card for Stough. When asked how they would spend their Valentine’s Day, Rothenberg excitedly said, “With a lot of chocolate!”

“We both have class so that makes it tough,” Stough said.

The couple plans on celebrating this weekend with dinner and a movie.

Valentine’s day offers consumers a variety of ways to express emotion and intention. Flowers, candy, romantic dinners and jewelry are traditional outlets for sentiment on Feb. 14.

Some students, however, don’t buy into the holiday.

Student Matt Denio has a different philosophy when it comes to Cupid.

“I do stuff randomly. That way it’s actually special, not commercialized,” Denio said. “Surprise ’em. I mean, they will be expecting something on Feb. 14, but if you do it on some random Monday then it means more.”

Denio admitted that he doesn’t like to be “pressured into gift buying.”

Still, many of Oakland’s retail stores have been feeling the love from shoppers.

Berni Parrish, owner of Touch of Gold and Silver Jewelry on Forbes Avenue, has observed an increase in student shoppers.

“We really get most of our business from the people that work in Oakland, but we have been getting a bunch of college students this year,” Parrish said.

Gifts like necklaces, earrings and bracelets have been popular choices. Parrish noticed a large increase in sales last Friday, but said that sales will continue to be steady.

“Valentine’s Day is really two days. The day before and the day of,” she said.

The historical significance of Valentine’s Day is a mystery to most. Pitt history Professor Bruce Venarde said that while reliable evidence of the historical figure of Valentine is hard to find, there is some evidence of his existence.

According to Venarde, Valentine was probably an Italian Christian martyr who died in the third century A.D.

“There was a church dedicated to him in Rome in the fourth century,” Venarde said in an e-mail. “His feast, that is, the day he is commemorated by the faithful, is Feb. 14.”

How the date and saint became associated with romance is still unknown.

“Some scholars think it is a remnant of the Roman pagan festival of Lupercalia,” Venarde wrote, “which took place in mid-February and included pairing up by young men and women in honor of a fertility goddess.”

Venarde also indicated a correlation between Feb. 14 and a medieval belief that birds are supposed to pair up on that date.

“The first reference to a person as a valentine comes in England from a letter of a 15th-century Englishwoman to her beloved, whom she calls “my rightwell beloved Valentine,” Venarde said.

It wasn’t until Victorian England that people began exchanging small gifts and notes, Venarde added.

“Probably after Valentine’s Day became associated with lovers there emerged stories that the historical Valentine married couples whose families did not permit it, or gave aid to women in prison or performed miracles,” Venarde said.

“In Catholic tradition, Valentine is the patron saint of engaged couples, bee keepers, greetings, happy marriages, lovers, travelers, young people and is said to ward off fainting, plague and attacks of epilepsy,” Venarde said.

Although there are vague references to Valentine in history, Venarde emphasized that existing historical records could not support those stories.

Whatever its origins, the holiday gives couples an excuse to spoil each other.

But freshman Bailee Miller has mixed feelings about the holiday.

“It’s a big deal here, I think. The girls in Holland [Hall] are nuts. It was never a big deal in high school,” Miller said. “I think it’s overrated, but maybe that’s because I don’t have a boyfriend.”

Even people that don’t have a lover to dote on today find ways of participating in the festivities, though. Many students, including Miller, made cards for friends.

“I think we’re just going to eat on campus,” Miller said, “but we still have fun.”