Why do we celebrate Valentine’s Day?
Image credit: Prostock-studio/Shutterstock.com
Valentine’s Day, February 14, is now celebrated all around the world as a special day for lovers. Flowers, gifts, and cards are all exchanged in the name of St. Valentine. But just who was St. Valentine and where did the traditions of the day come from?
Valentine in Antiquity
February has long been celebrated as a month of romance. The tradition of St. Valentine’s Day as it is now known dates back as far as Roman times. Celebrated at the Ides of February, (mid-February) Lupercalia was a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, and the founders of Rome; Romulus and Remus. However, the actual identity of Saint Valentine is not so clear-cut. The Catholic Church recognizes at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom were martyred.
One version of events declares that Valentine was a priest who lived during the 3rd century in Rome. During this time, Emperor Claudius II, outlawed marriage for young men, believing single men made better soldiers. Valentine thought this was unjust, defied Claudius, and continued to perform marriages ceremonies for young lovers in secret. When his actions were discovered, Claudius ordered him to be put to death.
Other historians insist that the celebrated day is named after Saint Valentine of Terni. He was also ordered to be put to death by Claudius II. He was beheaded just outside Rome for refusing to convert to paganism from Christianity. Other stories suggest that Valentine was killed for attempting to help Christians escape harsh Roman prisons. Another fable has it that an imprisoned Valentine sent a ‘love letter’ to his jailor’s daughter, who had visited him during his incarceration. It’s alleged that the letter was signed “From your Valentine,” an expression that is still in use today.
The Romanticisation of St Valentine
While Lupercalia survived the initial rise of Christianity it was eventually banned, as it was deemed ‘un-Christian’. At the end of the 5th century, Pope Gelasius declared February 14 St. Valentine’s Day, though it was much wasn’t until much later that the day became associated with the notion of romantic love. During the Middle Ages, it was a commonly held belief in France and England that February 14 was the beginning of the birds’ mating season. This gave rise to the day’s romantic overtones. In 1375, the English poet Geoffrey Chaucer first edified the idea of St. Valentine’s Day as a day of romantic celebration in a newly published poem.
By the early 15th century, the first written valentine notes were beginning to appear. Popular in 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 on Valentine’s Day. By the turn of the 19th century, due to improvements in printing technology, printed cards began to replace written letters. Cheaper postage also influenced an increase in the popularity of sending Valentine’s Day greetings.
Valentine’s Day in the Modern Era
Today, St. Valentine’s Day is celebrated in some form or other by almost every country around the world. In Britain alone, more than 25 million Valentine cards are sent each year, making it second only to Christmas in the annual sales of card stakes. In the USA, it’s estimated that a colossal 145 million cards are mailed each year, leading up to the 14th February celebration. The only peoples that don’t really celebrate the day are those from a number of Muslim countries. Here, governments are concerned that the day would encourage strict codes of Islamic morality to be broken. Such countries include; Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Malaysia.
Header image credit: LStockStudio/Shutterstock.com
If you’ve enjoyed reading this post, why not check out more of the articles in the series by clicking the following link: Why do we…….?
