> The lover's holiday has its beginnings in the 4th century
> B.C. in Rome. The Romans held an annual lottery wherein
> young men would draw a young woman's name from a box. The
> couple would be assigned to each other the entire year for
> entertainment and pleasure. This celebration, traditionally
> held on February 15, also included banquets, dancing and
> foot races run in the nude.
>
> Around A.D. 496, early church fathers sought an end to the
> pagan practice, but knew better than to upset the citizens
> by removing the lottery completely. Instead, they had
> teenagers pull the names of saints from the box. The teen
> was supposed to spend the year emulating that saint's life
> as much as possible, which was probably not as much fun as
> naked marathons. St. Valentine was chosen as the patron
> saint of the new event, and young Roman men resorted to
> courting females by sending handwritten notes delivered on
> February 14.
>
> Isn't that interesting ?


My school, small and conservative as it is, is famous in Columbus for an unofficial tradition the weekend before finals every year. The annual "Born To Run" race is run across our small campus after dark by students in their birthday suits. It attracts spectators from all over the city and beyond. Last year, a local rock station was there and one of the DJs competed.
I was delighted to read about the origins of our tradition. I had been naive enough to think college students in modern American society had been genius enough to think something like this up. Leave it to the ancients.