The History of Valentine’s Day
Restaurants offer special dinners for two and intimate dining with candlelit ambiance is popular. Romantic movies, romance books, lingerie, perfumes and scented candles, and anything colored red or pink are the order of Valentine’s day. Singles hope to receive a gift from significant others while married folk rekindle the passion that sparked their union. Florists are busy and stores stock multiple heart shaped boxes of chocolate well in advance of the day. As American celebrate Valentine’s Day few are aware that the history of this romantic festival is steeped in mystery and dates back over many centuries.
Long before the city of Rome was the centerpiece of an empire that stretched into Africa and north into Britain, Romans celebrated a feast in mid-February called Lupercalia. Originally to honor Lupercalia, a pagan god who delivered the flocks from roaming wolves, the holiday changed over many centuries to focus on lovers. Lupercalia became a Roman holiday, a day when young men often drew names of willing young woman in a lottery who became their partners for the festival and sometimes for a year. As Christianity slowed replaced the old gods of Rome, Pope Gelasius I in 496 AD decreed that the Lupercalia lottery would be ended and that young people of both genders would draw the name of a saint whose holy life they would strive to emulate in the coming year.
Because St. Valentine’s Feast Day fell on the 14th of February, the Saint soon became the focus of the former pagan festival. Facts are few but the myths are many that surround the history of Valentine’s Day. There are three saints named Valentine in the Catholic faith – the sole Christian faith that recognizes saints as holy men and women. Even the Catholic Church does not know which of three men sparked the romantic holiday we now call Valentine’s Day. Two of the men named Valentine were Roman, one a priest and the other a Bishop of Interamna. Both are rumored to have been conducting Christian rites in defiance of Roman laws. In various legends, Valentine is reported to have married Roman soldiers after the Emperor Claudius decreed that soldiers could not wed or to have been martyred for his faith.
The most popular and prevailing legend has Valentine jailed for his covert Christian activities. He is said to have fallen in love with his jailer’s blind daughter and to have written her a final letter that ended with the words “From Your Valentine”. In some versions, Valentine healed her and restored her sight.
No matter who Valentine may have been or what his exact actions were, he became the symbolic father of the Valentine’s Day we know today, a holiday based on the former Roman pagan rites. During the Middle Ages, the notion that Valentine’s Day was dedicated to lovers was furthered by the common belief that birds chose their mates on or about the 14th of February.
In 1415, Charles, Duke of Orleans was imprisoned in the tower of London and sent his wife a profession of his love in a letter on February 14. His letter is considered the first Valentine card. As centuries passed, the notion of Valentine’s Day spread and the stories expanded.
By 1868, the Cadbury Brothers chocolate makers in London began selling the first boxed chocolates and in 1870, the Cadbury brothers introduced the first heart shaped box of chocolates for Valentine’s Day. Printer and artist Esther Howland created the first American valentines in the 1870’s. Early Valentines were often lace and ribbon trimmed cards with flowery professions of love.
Cupid, a Roman deity associated with love and lovers, soon became a popular illustration on Valentines worldwide. The holiday continued to grow in popularity and scope. By the mid 19th century many public schools held Valentine parties for students during which Valentine cards were exchanged. Couples began to wed on February 14 and gifts expanded beyond cards and chocolates to include lingerie, perfumes and colognes, and much more.
Until 1969, Valentine’s Day was alternately called St. Valentine’s Day. Because of the increasing attention to Valentine’s feast day, the Catholic Church removed the day from all church calendars although some parishes in the United States continue to mark the date. Three Valentines remain saints within the Catholic Church but even church authorities cannot claim which is the founder of Valentine’s Day. Ruins of early Christian churches in Rome are dedicated to St. Valentine so it is most likely that either the priest or Bishop with the name of Valentine or Valentinus is responsible.
No matter what the origins, Valentine’s Day has come to symbolize love and romance in modern culture and the holiday will continue for centuries to come.
