DIONYSUS IVY

Encyclopedia of World Mythology, Warner, 1975, p. 235, THE MYTHOLOGY OF PLANTS | Flower and Other Plants:

http://www.tractsforfree.com/Fossilized_Customs.pdf, Fossilized Customs: The Pagan Sources of Popular Customs, p. 45, The Roman Beast Caesar Was Pontiff Before the Arrival of Catholicism:

Lupercalia was changed into Valentines Day and moved to the 14th after being Christianized. Instead of having nothing to do with the idolatry, it was simply altered slightly and adapted to the new universal religion. This is where we inherit the custom of Valentines Cards, and HEART SHAPED symbols. The shape of the heart is an IVY LEAF, the symbol of Bacchus, the male deity of wine and love (orgiastic).

Later, a Roman ruler named Caligula drained this site, and held enormously popular carnivals (Latin for flesh raising). Caligula was a devotee of Bacchus, and held orgies and drunken parties on a regular basis.

(I have sources saying that Caligulas orgies were prostitution based just to raise income, not to spread love. Theres a big difference.)
The Eerdmans Bible Dictionary, Myers, 1987, p. 284, DIONYSUS:

http://religion.mrugala.net/Grece/Anglais/Greec%20gods.txt: DIONYSOS (Dionysus, Dionysius, Roman Bacchus) Greek god of wine and intoxication. His female worshippers, known as Bacchants or Maenads, ran and danced through the woods in a drunken frenzy bearing torches and thyrsus staves (made of vine leaves and ivy). Phallic(penis) symbolism was particularly prominent at the Dionysia, The Septuagint with Apocrypha: Greek and English , Brenton, 1851, The Apocrypha, p. 193, II. Maccabees 6:7:

The New American Bible, Catholic World Press, 1997, World Publishing, pp. 504-505, 2 Maccabees, Chapter 6:

The Access Bible: New Revised Standard Version with the Apocrypha , ODay / Peterson, 1999, p. 228, 2 Maccabees 6, Commentary to verse 7:

http://www.pseudepigrapha.com/apocrypha_ot/3macc.htm, 3 Maccabees, 3Mac.2:

[29] those who are registered are also to be branded on their bodies by fire with the ivy-leaf symbol of Dionysus, and they shall also be reduced to their former limited status."
A Dictionary of the Bible, William Smith, 1899, p. 204, Dionysia | Dionysus:

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