Valentine’s Day is celebrated by people from around the world every year; however, this holiday was not originally founded on candy-grams and cards.
There are multiple legends about the origin of Valentine’s Day. These legends contain a lot of mystery and uncertainty surrounding exactly how Valentine’s Day came to be.
One legend says that Valentine was a priest in Rome during the third century.
Emperor Claudius II outlawed the marriage of young men because he decided that single men made better soldiers. Valentine disagreed with Claudius’ law and continued to perform secret marriages for young lovers. Claudius eventually discovered what Valentine was doing and ordered that he be put to death.
This legend emphasizes his appeal as sympathetic, romantic and heroic, which is why he is recognized.
Historians believe this holiday is celebrated in February to commemorate the anniversary of St. Valentine’s death or burial.
According to History, others claim that the Christian church may have placed St. Valentine’s fest day in the middle of February in an effort to “Christianize” the pagan celebration of Lupercalia.
Lupercalia, held on Feb. 15, was a fertility festival dedicated to Fanus, the Roman god of agriculture. This festival is also dedicated to Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome.
The festival began with members of the Luperci, Roman priests, gathering at a sacred cave where the infants Romulus and Remus were believed to have been cared for by a Lupa, a wolf goddess.
The Luperci would sacrifice a goat for fertility. The goat’s hide was cut into strips and dipped in sacrificial blood. Roman women then welcomed the touch of the hides. The hides were believed to make women more fertile in the year to come.
In the city, the women’s names would then be placed in a big urn. The city’s bachelors would choose a name from the urn and become paired with the chosen woman for the year. The matches often ended with marriage.
Lupercalia was eventually outlawed because it was deemed “un-Christian.”
At the end of the fifth century, Pope Gelasius declared Feb. 14 as St. Valentine’s Day.
In France and England during the Middle Ages, it was commonly believed that the birds’ mating season began Feb. 14, adding to the idea of romance on this day.
Valentine greetings date as far back as the Middle Ages; however, written valentines didn’t begin until after 1400.
The oldest known valentine greeting was a poem written in 1415 by Charles, Duke of Orleans, to his wife while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London.
In the 18th century, it was common for loved ones of all social classes to exchange notes or small tokens of love.
By 1900, printed cards replaced handwritten letters due to printing technology improvements. These ready-made cards made expressing emotions easy and indirect. Showing emotion in a direct expression was discouraged as this time.
Americans began exchanging hand-made valentines in the early 1700s. During the 1840s, Ether A. Howland, known as the “Mother of the Valentine,” began selling the first mass-produced valentines.
According to the Greeting Card Association, every year approximately one billion Valentine’s Day cards are sent. This makes Valentine’s Day the second-largest card-sending holiday of the year, after Christmas.
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