The surprising origins of Valentine’s Day

https://useast2-www.securly.com/blocked?reason=domainblockedforuser&categoryid=33554496&policyid=4&i2n=1657522093&url=Y29tbW9ucy53aWtpbWVkaWEub3JnL3dpa2kvRmlsZTpTYWludF9WYWxlbnRpbmUuanBn&ssl=true

Valentine’s Day is a popular holiday filled with heart-shaped candies, chocolates, and flowers that are used to celebrate love and romance. However, many people don’t know the truth about how the holiday started. 

How did Valentine’s Day begin? 

The origins of this holiday date back to the 6th century B.C. with the ancient Roman fertility festival Lupercalia. This gruesome festival, celebrated on the 15th of February, severely punished women who were not fertile to please the Roman fertility god, Lupercus. It is believed that the Catholic Church introduced the feast of Saint Valentine on February 14th to stop the festival.

Who was Saint Valentine? 

This question isn’t so simple to answer because there was more than one holy Valentine during this era.

One possible theory is that the day is named after the St. Valentine who lived during the time period of Claudius II. Valentine continued to perform weddings after Claudius II banned them because he deemed it unbiblical. After getting caught, Valentine was jailed, and when asked to forsake his faith, he refused, leading to his beheading on February 14. He was named a Saint for his martyrdom.

Another legend that discusses a different (or, possibly, even the same) Valentine is about a love between Valentine, who was jailed because he helped persecuted Christians, and his prisoner’s daughter, Julia. Julia was blind, but when she prayed with Valentine, God restored her sight. The night before the now revered patron saint of lovers was executed, St. Valentine wrote and delivered a short letter to Julia and signed off by saying, “Love, from your Valentine.”

When did people start celebrating Valentine’s Day?

The origin of celebrating love on Valentine’s Day traces back to when the English poet Geoffrey Chaucer wrote a poem called “The Parlement of Foules,” where he described that every bird met its mate on St. Valentine’s Day. This poem inspired people to write love letters to their significant others, starting the tradition of valentines. Over the years, people grew creative and added flowers, jewelry, and chocolates to their gifts, leading up to modern Valentine’s Day traditions.