Gifts are bought and loved ones are spoiled, but few really know how Valentine’s Day came to be.
The history of Valentine’s Day is shrouded in mystery and has more than one myth.
February has long been celebrated as a month of romance and Valentine’s Day, as we know it today, contains fragments of both Christian and ancient Roman tradition.
But who was Saint Valentine and how did he become associated with this ancient tradition?
There were at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus.
One legend claims that Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome.
When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men were better soldiers than those with wives and families, he outlawed marriage for young men.
Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret.
When Valentine’s actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death.
Another myth suggests that Valentine may have been killed for attempting to help Christians escape harsh Roman prisons.
According to this legend, an imprisoned Valentine actually sent the first “valentine” greeting himself after he fell in love with a young girl, possibly his jailor’s daughter, who visited him during his confinement.
Before his death, it is alleged that he wrote her a letter signed “From your Valentine,” an expression that is still in use today.
Although the truth behind the Valentine legends is murky, the stories all emphasize his appeal as a sympathetic, heroic and, most importantly, romantic figure.
By the Middle Ages, perhaps thanks to this reputation, Valentine would become one of the most popular saints in England and France.
Lupercalia which was a very ancient festival observed on February 13 through 15 to avert evil spirits, purify the city and release health and fertility, survived the initial rise of Christianity but was outlawed as it was deemed “un-Christian”.
At the end of the fifth century Pope Gelasius declared February 14 St. Valentine’s Day.
It was not until much later that the day became definitively associated with love.
During the Middle Ages, it was commonly believed in France and England that February 14 was the beginning of birds’ mating season, which added to the idea that the middle of Valentine’s Day should be a day for romance.
Source: https://www.history.com/
