The Real History of Valentine's Day

Each February, millions of people flock to the local card shop in search of just the right card. Florists celebrate their busiest season. And hearts abound, literally. But many people do not realize the true history of February 14, or Valentine's Day.

There are several different variations on the possible true history of this celebration of love and romance, and all contain a mix of history from the Catholic Church, Rome and Europe.

It is generally thought that St. Valentine's Day may have begun because the Catholic Church needed a method of introducing Christianity during the Pagan festival known as Lupercalia, which occurred in February. Also, somewhere around 270 A.D. St. Valentine was killed during February. Coincidentally, both served as a reason to begin celebrating St. Valentine's Day on February the fourteenth.

Where Rome comes is – is that February marks the end of winter and indicates a time of purification. Lupercalia was a celebration intended to honor the god of fertility, who provided the wheat (spelt) ceremoniously sprinkled in Roman homes during the arrival of Spring.

During Lupercalia, goats and other animals were sacrificed and their blood shed and smeared upon strips of their hides. Roman women reveled at being touched by the young boys wielding these strips in the streets of Rome, as they blessed all who were touched with the promise of fertility in the coming year.

The second part of the Lupercalia festival was when all single women placed their names into a large container in the town square. Each single man in Rome chose from the container the name of a woman with whom they were to be paired for the coming year. Rumor is, many marriages arose from these celebratory pairings.

February in Europe is the beginning of the mating season for birds, and this just further influenced the decision of the adoption of February 14 as Valentine's Day, the celebration of love and romance.

The first real celebration of Valentines Day appears to have been in Great Britain during the seventeenth century, although the oldest known valentine was a poem written in the 1400s from Charles, Duke of Orleans to his wife after he was imprisoned in the Tower of London.

In the United States, celebrations of Valentines Day began in the 1700s. Commercialized ready-to-use greeting cards became widely available in the 1840s. The popularity of commercially available greeting cards is attributed to several factors including social behavior expectations and postage rates. Expressing emotions often conveyed through letters was socially discouraged during this time period. Thus, a pre-written card reduced the amount of emotion the card-sender needed to include. And, greeting cards used a cheaper postage rate than bulky letters. The cost-savings made the use of pre-made Valentines very popular among Americans.

Globally, Valentine's Day is now celebrated in The U.S., France, Mexico, Canada, Great Britain and Australia. Interestingly enough, it is not celebrated in Italy. Nearly a billion cards are given to honor the celebration of love, that number being second only to the amount of cards sent for Christmas.



Last edited by admin on Thu Jan 19, 2006 12:25 am; edited 2 times in total

Where is February the beginning of the mating season for birds? Certainly not in England, it's still winter then, and definitely not here (Winnipeg) either there is still 4 feet of snow on the ground! Generally mating season begins for birds when they return from their winter migration to their breeding grounds, and they usually wait for there to be leaves on the trees and the temperature to be somewhat above freezing (I'm assuming you are referring to songbirds).

Sorry, the thing about the birds makes the whole story sound like one of those chain letters that always show up in my email inbox describing the origin of various words and expressions, and even though they are mildy entertaining, they're just a bunch of made up crap that someone thought sounded true enough to fool most of the people.

but, there is at least some truth to this, as it is mentioned in parlement of the foules written by geoffrey chaucer in 1381.

there is some truth here, but I agree with the bird thing.It does make it sound A little crazy.
Valentines Day is just A day to show your love and, expression for others.     

                                      
let all your emotions show.for on this day.Is a day to let all your emotions show!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

if you ask me it sounds like this day is definatly "For the Birds"     ....Bah Humbird>>>>>

I heard it was because the Romans made it illegal to get married so St. Valentine (priest) married people
secretively....he was caught and put in prison to be put to death...a long time female friend wrote him a card to say Valentines day or something like...anyway, i am tired but that story was told tonight and probably is correct do to the story here about St. Valentine's death in February....
~lea

Forget the "V" day there is something behind this: Man from Mars, and woman from Venus....And the Valentines day is a money maker for some, heart breaker for others.

bacon

this real ly helped me understand how valentine all started and in a way it is so funny now i am not so mad about valentines day

valentine day is the day  when beauty of love comes to its full bloom ....its the day which reveals that someone somewhere is verrrry special and the day of joy ,happiness and love.

kalsoom wrote:

valentine day is the day  when beauty of love comes to its full bloom ....its the day which reveals that someone somewhere is verrrry special and its a day of joy ,happiness and love.

everyone says valentine is for lovers, and it's the truth. But what if you don't have a lover?   I think you may celebrate it with friends, not only lovers!

First, I have to tell you all, Thank you for this site. I stumbled accross it in a News piece on Yahoo.
Second, I hope you all have fun...
Oh, and I hate 2/14 with EVRYTHING in me! It's just another way to rip off the un informed, and the gullible. I'll buy my own freaking candy and flowers, when I want them.
 

If you went back to the Roman method then you would never have to worry about being single on this money making day for the different bussinesses associated with this day. If your single put your name in the vase and see who picks you for the rest of the year, who knows maybe that is why online matchmaking and such does so well... Seriously though if I forget to take my wife to dinner or buy her roses then I am in the dog house, yet this day after reading the article only came about to introduce a catholic theme to a pagen ritual... Hmmmmm sounds familiar the catholic church has been re-inventing and making new holidays everytime they came across a new pagen ritual... Why don't we just invent a new ritual, so we can have say another christmas, or easter, or halloween....