Valentine’s Day Origins

From ancient Roman ritual to Catholic feast day to extremely commercialized holiday, Valentine’s Day, February 14, has centuries old roots. How did this romantic holiday become what it is today?

The Catholic Church recognizes a Saint Valentine, or Saint Valentinus. Legends surrounding “the original” St. Valentine are still shrouded in mystery. One legend is that St. Valentine was a priest in third century Rome. Emperor Claudius II ruled that Roman soldiers fought better if they were single, so he outlawed the marriage of soldiers. Valentine secretly married young soldiers. When Claudius discovered this, he put Valentine to death.

Another legend says that Valentine helped prisoners escape Roman prisons. According to history.com, “an imprisoned Valentine actually sent the first ‘valentine’ greeting himself after he fell in love with a young girl…Before his death, it is alleged that he wrote her a letter signed ‘From your Valentine,’ an expression that is still in use today.” No matter what the legend is, St. Valentine is normally associated with love.

There are two stories surrounding why Valentine’s Day is celebrated in February. Some people believe that it is celebrated on the day of Valentine’s death or burial sometime around 270 AD. Others believe that it was created in an attempt to “Christianize” the Roman festival of Lupercalia.

“Celebrated at the ides of February, or February 15, Lupercalia was a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, as well as to the Roman founders Romulus and Remus,” says history.com. Roman woman who were gently hit with the sacrificial goat skin on that day believed that they would become more fertile. This pagan celebration later became Valentine’s Day. Photo courtesy of Google Images.

Lupercalia was a Roman fertility celebration in mid-February on which “priests would sacrifice a goat, for fertility, and a dog, for purification. They would then strip the goat’s hide into strips, dip them into the sacrificial blood and take to the streets, gently slapping both women and crop fields with the goat hide,” says history.com. This would promote fertility in women and good fortune for crops that year.

At the end of the fifth century, Pope Gelasius outlawed the “un-Christian” celebration, and declared February 14 Valentine’s Day.

The Valentine’s Day as we know it today did not come about until much later. Today, we think of February 14 as a day of gift giving and Valentine’s Day cards. The oldest known Valentine’s Day greeting cards appeared in 1415. Now, these cards are essential for the day to be celebrated.

Valentine’s Day is celebrated in the United States, Canada, France, Mexico, Australia and the United Kingdom. Among Americans, the popularity of exchanging gifts and cards started in the early 1800s. By the 1900s, printed cards started to replace handwritten ones due to printing technology. Today, Valentine’s Day is the second largest card-exchanging holiday (Christmas being the first).

Next time you by a card or ask someone to “Be your Valentine,” remember that this day has a lot more history than you might think.