Valentine’s Day has long been a holiday filled with romance, cards, and flowers; however, the history of Valentine’s Day is a fascinating mix of ancient Roman ritual, Christian legend, and 14th-century poetry. What started as a dark Pagan festival has evolved into a multi-million dollar holiday today.
History.com explains that there have been many stories thought to inspire Valentine’s Day, but the most commonly accepted theory starts with Rome in the third century. During this period, the mistreatment of Christians was profuse throughout Rome, and Emperor Claudius II banned young men from being married with the thought that unmarried men could make better soldiers since they had nothing to lose.
Saint Valentine thought that this was unjust and married couples in secret. Emperor Claudius II did not let this go unnoticed and sentenced St. Valentine to imprisonment and execution. During his imprisonment, he is said to have helped his jailer’s sick daughter. He was sentenced to death on February 14, 270 A.D., but before his execution he wrote a letter to her signed, “From your Valentine,” a term still used on Valentine’s Day centuries later.
While many people believe that it was put in the middle of February to commemorate St. Valentine’s death occurred around 270 A.D., others think Christian churches placed the holiday in mid-February to Christianize the pagan Lupercia festival. This festival was celebrated on February 15th and was a celebration to honor fertility as well as the founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus.
According to Medfield Historical Society, during Lupercia, priests would slaughter a goat and a wolf representing fertility and purification. They then whipped women with the hides of these animals. This ceremony was told to make the women and the fields more fertile for the next cropping season. The women looked forward to this event because they believed it made them more fertile for the year. After this women would put their names into a pot where the bachelors would pull the name of a woman they would be coupled with for the year, often leading to marriage.
In the 5th century Lupercia was officially outlawed, but was still not a celebration of love. Many from France and England believed that February 14th marked the start of the bird mating season, leading to the thought that Valentine’s Day should be for those in love.
Valentine’s greeting had been popularized long before in the Middle Ages, but the first written proof was a poem written by Charles, Duke of Orleans, to his wife in 1415 when he was imprisoned in the Tower of London.
Now, approximately 190 million people are expected to give Valentine’s gifts each year on Valentine’s Day.
