The History Of St Valentine’s Day

The History Of St Valentine’s Day

History of Valentine’s Day

The Legend of St. Valentine

Every
February 14, across the United States and in other places around the
world, candy, flowers and gifts are exchanged between loved ones, all in
the name of St. Valentine. But who is this mysterious saint, and where
did these traditions come from? Find out about the history of this
centuries-old holiday, from ancient Roman rituals to the customs of
Victorian England.

The Legend of St. Valentine

The history
of Valentine’s Day–and the story of its patron saint–is shrouded in
mystery. We do know that February has long been celebrated as a month of
romance, and that St. Valentine’s Day, as we know it today, contains
vestiges of both Christian and ancient Roman tradition. But who was
Saint Valentine, and how did he become associated with this ancient
rite?

The Catholic Church recognizes at least three different
saints named Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom were martyred. One
legend contends that Valentine was a priest who served during the third
century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made
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.

Other stories suggest that Valentine may have
been killed for attempting to help Christians escape harsh Roman
prisons, where they were often beaten and tortured. According to one
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.

Origins of Valentine’s Day: A Pagan Festival in February

While
some believe that Valentine’s Day is celebrated in the middle of
February to commemorate the anniversary of Valentine’s death or
burial–which probably occurred around A.D. 270–others claim that the
Christian church may have decided to place St. Valentine’s feast day in
the middle of February in an effort to “Christianize” the pagan
celebration of Lupercalia. Celebrated at the ides of February, or
February 15, Lupercalia was a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus,
the Roman god of agriculture, as well as to the Roman founders Romulus
and Remus.

To begin the festival, members of the Luperci, an
order of Roman priests, would gather at a sacred cave where the infants
Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, were believed to have been
cared for by a she-wolf or lupa. The priests would sacrifice a goat, for
fertility, and a dog, for purification. They would then strip the
goat’s hide into strips, dip them into the sacrificial blood and take to
the streets, gently slapping both women and crop fields with the goat
hide. Far from being fearful, Roman women welcomed the touch of the
hides because it was believed to make them more fertile in the coming
year. Later in the day, according to legend, all the young women in the
city would place their names in a big urn. The city’s bachelors would
each choose a name and become paired for the year with his chosen woman.
These matches often ended in marriage.

Valentine’s Day: A Day of Romance

Lupercalia
survived the initial rise of Christianity and but was outlawed—as it
was deemed “un-Christian”–at the end of the 5th century, when Pope
Gelasius declared February 14 St. Valentine’s Day. It was not until much
later, however, 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.

Valentine greetings were popular as far back as the
Middle Ages, though written Valentine’s didn’t begin to appear until
after 1400. The oldest known valentine still in existence today was a
poem written in 1415 by Charles, Duke of Orleans, to his wife while he
was imprisoned in the Tower of London following his capture at the
Battle of Agincourt. (The greeting is now part of the manuscript
collection of the British Library in London, England.) Several years
later, it is believed that King Henry V hired a writer named John
Lydgate to compose a valentine note to Catherine of Valois.

Typical Valentine’s Day Greetings

In
addition to the United States, Valentine’s Day is celebrated in Canada,
Mexico, the United Kingdom, France and Australia. In Great Britain,
Valentine’s Day began to be popularly celebrated around the 17th
century. By the middle of the 18th, it was common for friends and lovers
of all social classes to exchange small tokens of affection or
handwritten notes, and by 1900 printed cards began to replace written
letters due to improvements in printing technology. Ready-made cards
were an easy way for people to express their emotions in a time when
direct expression of one’s feelings was discouraged. Cheaper postage
rates also contributed to an increase in the popularity of sending
Valentine’s Day greetings.

Americans probably began exchanging
hand-made valentines in the early 1700s. In the 1840s, Esther A. Howland
began selling the first mass-produced valentines in America. Howland,
known as the “Mother of the Valentine,” made elaborate creations with
real lace, ribbons and colorful pictures known as “scrap.” Today,
according to the Greeting Card Association, an estimated 145 million
Valentine’s Day cards are sent each year, making Valentine’s Day the
second largest card-sending holiday of the year (more cards are sent
at Christmas). Women purchase approximately 85 percent of all
valentines.

Source:- History