History of Valentine's Day

School got canceled today, so I thought I would take moment to stick with a popular theme that I started last year. The theme centered around the idea of informing people of the histories regarding different holidays. Here is what I found out regarding today’s holiday, St. Valentine’s Day!

According to the History Channel’s website, History.Com, the holiday began as a commemoration of the death/burial of St. Valentine. As we have seen with other holidays, this was possibly due to help offset a pegan festival called Lupercalia. Lupercalia began on February 15th, and was the celebration for the Roman god of agriculture. After a goat and dog sacrifice, strips of meat were dipped in blood, and the people took to the streets slapping the meat on the crops and young women. The women believed it would make them more fertile in the coming year. At the end of the day, all the young girls would put their names in a big pot, and the men would draw names to see who they would be “paired” with for the next year. Of course, the Pope eventually deemed this system to be un-Christian, and it became illegal.

So who exactly was St. Valentine? One legend says he was a priest who secretly performed marriages for young men after they were temporarily outlawed by Emperor Claudius II who felt that single men made better soldiers. When St. Valentine was discovered, he was put to death. Other stories say St. Valentine was put to death for attempting to help Christians escape from Roman prisons. Some stories link him to writing letters to a lover in which he signed, “From your Valentine.”

The holiday found its way to Great Britain in the 1600’s and later to America in the 1700’s. According to the website, “The first commercial Valentine's Day greeting cards produced in the U.S. were created in the 1840s by Esther A. Howland.” Today, Valentine’s Day is second only to Christmas in the amount of cards sent to people.

Happy Valentine’s Day!