Love is like the sky. It comes in many colors, changes often, and is endless. The season of love is soon to kick off with the feast of St. Valentine’s Day. For history buffs out there, Valentine’s Day takes its origin like many modern Christian holidays, co-opting a previous Roman pagan feast.
The original celebration known as Lupercalia was abandoned sometime in the fifth century when the Pope installed the feast of St. Valentine in honor of two Christian martyrs named Valentine. My limited reading of the original celebration of Lupercalia depicted a wild and raucous feast including animal sacrifice, naked men running through villages whipping women to bring fertility, and a lottery where women’s names were placed in a jar and chosen by men. Many of matches ended in love and marriage.
Here in Twisp, there’s ample opportunities to celebrate the love in your life, albeit a bit more tame than the pagan feast described above.
Wellspring studio, located in the Community Center, will be offering a new and exciting class for couples to try something new and connect with contact play on Valentine’s Day. Contact play is form of movement and dance that instructs individuals to move with others in a safe and playful context. It explores sharing weight, balance, rolling, bone stacking, listening and spontaneity. Dea Luvon, one of our local dance stars, will be hosting the special session for couples on Valentine’s Day from 5-6:30 p.m. as an opportunity to touch and connect with your partner in a new and fun way. Pre-registration is required and the class is $20. You can register via email: dealuvon@gmail.com.
If touch and dance isn’t your fancy, how about chocolate? The Twisp Valley Grange will be hosting a fundraiser to replace the kitchen floor. Volunteers will be selling beautifully packaged boxes of organic cream-filled truffles made with couverture chocolate for $10 on Thursday and Friday (Feb. 13-14). Cream-filled flavors will include espresso, caramel, lavender and more, yum! Find them at Hank’s Harvest Foods from 11 a.m.-5 p.m., and don’t forget to grab a bouquet of flowers too.
Diamonds are a girl’s best friend they say, unless you can find handcrafted gems and jewelry locally with a unique touch. With the grand opening of the Methow Valley Jewelry Collective, there’s no excuse to not find that perfect piece for your loved one. Browse the beautifully crafted silver, gems and stones at the Bernie Hosey Building at TwispWorks, Friday-Monday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
