You all may think of Valentine’s Day as a day of bliss and romance. When you’re thinking about it, your first thoughts may be stuffed bears, wine, champagne, or chocolate-covered strawberries. How about what gifts your significant others are going to get you? Will it be a big heart-shaped box of Godiva? Will you get a dozen roses? Whatever your thoughts may be, have you ever thought about the history of the holiday?
February has long been celebrated as a month of romance, but many people do not know how the holiday came to be. Who is this mysterious saint that we celebrate every February 14th? Well, Valentine’s Day celebration is a tradition of both Ancient Rome and Christianity. The Catholic Church recognizes at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus and all of them were martyred. The first legend is one about Valentine, who was a priest of his time during the third century Rome era. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single young men made better soldiers than those with wives, he quickly outlawed marriage for young men. St. Valentine saw through the injustice and went on his own beliefs to secretly perform marriages for young lovers. When Emperor Claudius discovered this, St. Valentine was ordered to be put to death. The second legend is that Saint Valentine of Terni, a bishop who was beheaded by Claudius II, which could be the true namesake of the holiday.
The third legend is that another Valentine who was helping Christians escape harsh Roman prisons was also imprisoned and then killed. While he was imprisoned, Valentine is said to have sent the first Valentines’ greeting after he fell in love with the jailor’s daughter. Before his death, it is alleged that he wrote her a letter and signed it “From your Valentine” Although the truth behind these legends is murky, one thing stays true; the characters are romantic figures.
Many people, including myself, believe that around early A.D. the holiday was originally known as a Pagan holiday, but it was quickly taken over as a Christian holiday. For Pagans, February fifteenth was known as Lupercalia. It was a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman God of agriculture, as well as to the Roman founders Romulus and Remus. This festival survived the initial rise of Christianity, but it was soon outlawed. Towards the end of the 5th century, Pope Gelasius declared February 14th as the Feast of St. Valentine but the day wouldn’t be associated with love until the Middle Ages. Valentine’s Day greetings became popular during this time and soon around the 1400s, written cards became the new craze. The oldest is one written in 1415 by Charles Duke of Orleans in the form of a poem for his wife while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London. By the 1900s it was common for friends and lovers to exchange small tokens of affection and printed cards as printing technology had advanced. Cheaper postage rates also contributed to the increase in the popularity of sending Valentine’s Day cards. This new holiday eventually made its way to the New World and by 1913 Hallmark Cards of Kansas City began to mass-produce cards and February has not been the same since.
Today, according to the Greeting Card Association there will be an estimated 145 million cards sent and the United States is expected to reach approximately 22 billion USD in holiday purchases. So whether you are in a relationship or not, take the day to cherish every moment. Life is short and it is not always about getting the gift of your dreams. It is about spending time with the ones you love. Happy Valentine’s Day!