Valentine’s Day is celebrated every year on February 14. It is mostly celebrated by the United States and Britain. This date was chosen by Pope Gelasius of Rome in the late fifth century. The holiday is also known as Saint Valentine’s Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine.
Some believe the holiday has origins in the ancient Roman festival of Lupercalia, which celebrated fertility. The festival was dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, and also Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome. Roman priests would sacrifice a goat for fertility and a dog for purification. They spread the blood on women and crop fields to encourage fertility. Later in the festival, men and women were paired off by choosing names from a jar. These couples often ended up getting married. The Pope replaced the holiday’s name with Saint Valentine’s Day.
The name Saint Valentine refers to several people. It is unknown as to which person that he chose the holiday’s name from. There was a priest named Valentine in third-century Rome. He went against the emperor Claudius’s wishes to end marriages for young men. Claudius believed that men who were strongly attached to their families would not make good soldiers. Claudius had Valentine killed because he continued to perform marriage ceremonies in secret. There was also another man with the name Valentine who was killed for helping Christians escape from Roman prisons. While the man was imprisoned, it is rumored that he sent a “valentine” to a woman who visited him. The letter was signed “from your valentine”, which is an expression still used today in valentines.
Today, Valentine’s Day is known as a day of romantic celebration. According to the Greeting Card Association, an estimated 145 million Valentine’s Day cards are sent each year. It follows Christmas as the second largest card-sending holiday of the year. The tradition of exchanging hand-made valentines began by Americans in the early 1700s. Esther A. Howland began selling the first produced valentines in the 1840s. The valentines were decorated with real lace, ribbons, and colorful pictures known as “scrap”. It is also popular today to celebrate the holiday by exchanging gifts, flowers, and candy between loved ones.
