Last week, Union celebrated Valentine’s Day. Valentine’s Day is a holiday in which people pay extra-special attention to their loved ones by sending flowers, chocolates, and other gifts. Some couples also turn this into a date night. People generally think of this when they think of Valentine’s Day; some people may even know the story of Saint Valentine, the Catholic saint the holiday is named for. However, Valentine’s Day boasts an impressive history that dates back to the Ancient Romans. Although historians debate the first celebrations of Valentine’s Day, most agree that the Roman festival of Lupercalia prefigured the modern Valentine’s Day. Lupercalia was a Roman fertility festival in honor of the Roman god of agriculture and the legendary founders of Rome. At the end of this long and somewhat complex festival, single Roman men drew a woman’s name out of an urn, courted her for a year, and then married her.
Furthermore, Catholic Church recognizes three saints named Valentine. One Valentine supposedly performed marriages for young lovers when the Emperor had outlawed marriage for young men. Another supposedly did something similar, but historians have yet to discover much about the second Valentine. The third and final Saint Valentine boasts the most popular story. He was imprisoned for helping Christians escape Roman prisons. He then fell in love with the jailer’s daughter and wrote her a letter signed “From your Valentine.” All three of these stories lack significant historical evidence, however. Some historians believe that Valentine’s Day is an anniversary of one of the Valentines’ deaths, but the more likely theory is that after the rise of Christianity and the initial outlaw of Lupercalia, the holidays were combined in an attempt to Christianize remaining pagans.
Even after Valentine’s Day became recognized by the Catholic Church, the holiday did not become associated with love until the Middle Ages. France and England became the main proponents of this theory. The theory was that because birds began mating season on February 14th, Valentine’s Day should be romantic in nature. Despite this, written Valentine’s did not surface until much later, and these typically consisted of poems (not store-bought cards) with the oldest dating back to 1415. This version of Valentine’s Day was also only for the upper classes and nobility; the lower classes could not read or write. Several centuries occurred before Valentine’s Day spread to the masses.
By the middle of the 18th century, Valentine’s Day became more widespread across social classes since literacy rates increased. Americans also began exchanging Valentine’s Day cards during this time period. In fact, the America boasts the first mass-produced Valentine’s Day gift known as “Mother of the Valentine.” This was still handcrafted, however. By1900, people began using printed cards instead of writing letters or poems. During this time period, cultural belief held that emotions were to be withheld; therefore, store-bought cards were an easy way to counter this belief. In the modern day, Valentine’s Day comes in second for the largest card-sending holiday of the year with around 145 million cards sent each year.
When people think of the most famous holidays, Christmas, Easter, and Thanksgiving all cone to mind, and these holidays all have great histories. Valentine’ Day, however, boasts a history just as grand. The origins of Valentine’s Day predate Christianity, and the development of Valentine’s Day over several centuries is truly interesting. Although Valentine’s Day is just one day out of the year and although the holiday is not counted as major, the 14th of February boasts a history like no other.
