The Origin of Valentine's Day

The Origin of Valentine's Day

February 14th is Valentine's Day. Although it is celebrated as a lovers' holiday today, with the giving of candy, flowers or other gifts between couples in love, today it is believed to have originated in 5th Century Rome as a tribute to St.Valentine, an early Christian saint.

For eight hundred years prior to the establishment of Valentine's Day, the Romans had practiced a pagan celebration in mid-February commemorating the god Lupercus. In Roman mythology, Lupercus is a god sometimes identified with the Roman god Faunua, who is the Roman equivalent of the Greek god Pan. Lupercus is the god of shepherds. This ancient festival, Lupercalia, was held on February 15th and celebrated fertility rights and the coming of spring. This festival eventually spread into France and Brittian.

In an effort to do away with the pagan festival, Pope Gelasius ordered that the names of saints would be drawn from a box. Both men and women were allowed to draw from the box, and the game was to emulate the saint they drew during the rest of the year.

Instead of the pagan god Lupercus, the early Christian Church looked for a suitable patron saint of love to take his place. Legend holds that they found an appropriate choice in Valentine, who, in 269 AD had been beheaded by Emperor Claudius.

Claudius had determined that married men made poor soldiers. So he banned marriage from his empire. But Valentine would secretly marry young men and women that came to him. When Claudius found out about Valentine, he first tried to convert him to paganism. But Valentine reversed the strategy, trying instead to convert Claudius. When he failed, he was stoned and beheaded.

Legend has it that during the days that Valentine was imprisoned, he fell in love with the blind daughter of his jailer. His love for her and his great faith, managed to miraculously heal her from her blindness before his death. Before he was taken to his death, he signed a farewell message to her, "From your Valentine." The phrase has been used on his day ever since.

Although the lottery for women had been banned by the church, the mid-February holiday in commemoration of St. Valentine was still used by Roman men to seek the affection of women. It became a tradition for the men to give the ones they admired handwritten messages of affection, containing Valentine's name.

The first Valentine Card grew out of this practice. The first true Valentine card was sent in 1415 by Charles, Duke of Orleans, to his wife. The French Duke was imprisoned in the Tower of London at the time. The first commercial Valentine's Day cards were made in Brittan in the early 1800; in 1947, they began being produced in America.

Cupid, another symbol of the holiday, became associated with it because he was the son of Venus, the Roman god of love and beauty. Cupid often appears on Valentine cards along with doves.