History of Valentine's Day

Valentine’s Day has many possible historical origins. First, it can be traced to Ancient Rome and the pagan festival that honored Lupercalia. During this festival the community sacrificed an animal and then slapped its skin on women in order to bless them with a year of good fertility. Although this festival has nothing to do with St. Valentine it is related to the origins of Valentine’s Day because it occurred in mid-February.

More on topic is the Catholic origin of Father Valentine, but his story is only a legend. Father Valentine lived in the 3^rd century AD during the rule of Roman Emperor Claudius II. Claudius II banned marriage in order to grow his army because he (Claudius II) believed married men did not make good soldiers. However, Father Valentine defied Claudius II’s law by secretly marrying lovers. For this he was arrested and thrown into jail. Here is where the legend becomes inconsistent. One version states that while he was imprisoned he and a jailor’s daughter grew fond of each other and on the day of his execution he left her a note signed “From your Valentine.” The second version states that while he was imprisoned people left him little notes, from which he offered prayers for anyone indicated. In both legends, Father Valentine was executed on February 14.

There are many other different accounts of the first celebration of Valentine’s Day. They are all associated with love. For example, Geoffrey Chaucer, in 1382, mentions Valentine’s Day in a poem which honors the first anniversary of the engagement of Kind Richard II of England to Anne of Bohemia. However, this might be a misinterpretation of the author’s purpose because it is more likely that Chaucer was referring to May 2nd (Saint’s day for Valentine of Genoa) due to his clause about mating birds. Another example is that on Valentine’s Day in 1400 the “High Court of Love” was established in Paris to deal with love contracts, betrayals and violence against women.

Relative to the commercialized Valentine’s Day celebrated today, our Valentine’s Day was probably brought to North American by British settlers in the 19^th century. The first mass production of Valentine’s Day cards were produced and then shortly after, in 1847, Esther Howland took inspiration from an English Valentine she received to benefit her father’s stationary store. While Howland’s production began the practice of sending Valentines, it was not until the second half of the 20th century (around the same time as when the Catholic church stopped recognizing St. Valentine as an official holiday to decrease the number of saint days) that the holiday was elaborated to the extent that it is today with exchanging cards and gift giving. *

*All information found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentine’s_Day but other sources used were history.com and http://www.pictureframes.co.uk/pages/saint_valentine.htm