History of Valentine's Day

Valentine’s day is a popular holiday because you can celebrate it regardless of religion, despite its Christian origins. It is a holiday of love, sugar, and lacy edged hearts. It takes place on the 14th of February, halfway through the short month. Although it is a holiday that was previously in honor of a saint, it has become highly commercialized by companies in a colonized America that benefit from the extraordinary amount of people buying flowers, cards, chocolates, and more.

The holiday itself was created in honor of St. Valentine, and was moved to the date of the 14th by Pope Gelasius I in the 400s (5th century), due to a previous pagan holiday occurring around that time. The feast of Lupercalia, a strange holiday celebrated by the Romans to honor their agricultural god, Faunus, and partially to honor their supposed founders of Rome, Remus and Romulus. During this holiday, Roman priests would first sacrifice a goat to represent fertility, then a dog to represent purification. After this, the priests would form whips out of the animal hides, slather them in sacrificial blood, and whip women with them. However, what is strange is that the women appreciated this as it was supposed to increase fertility in the coming year. An additional tradition during this holiday was women's names were drawn from a jar by men, who were then paired for the year. The combination of this holiday and the Feast of St. Valentine was to popularize Christianity and erase pagan traditions which were often estranged to the Catholic church.

Though the name possibly pertains to one Saint Valentine, there were likely two saints whom the holiday is named after. The Catholic church itself recognizes three saints with the name Valentine or Valentinus, and it was a common name at the time Saint Valentine likely lived. There are varying accounts of what exactly St. Valentine may have did to gain his sainthood, but in all such accounts he was a martyr- a person who has died for their faith and beliefs. One account in which he wrote a note after being imprisoned, addressed to the jailer’s daughter and signed ‘your Valentine’, one in which he may have helped Christians escape Roman prisons, and one in which Claudius II the Roman emperor at the time, outlawed marriage because unmarried men made better soldiers- and Valentine married young couples in secret and was executed because of his actions, with variations upon those.

If one is familiar with the holiday, it is likely they have heard of or seen a cherub with a cartoonish bow, shooting arrows and magically having people fall in love when struck with the arrow. This cherub is an interpretation of the Roman god, Cupid, but is portrayed as if he is a Christian angel. Cupid’s origins lie with the Greeks, who had a god named Eros- Cupid’s more attractive Greek counterpart. Eros wielded golden arrows, much like Cupid’s in today’s representations, and used aforementioned arrows to strike love into the hearts of mortals. In addition to his golden love-giving arrows, he had lead arrows used to create dislike for a person, the opposite of the gold arrows. There are different assumptions of who may have been Eros’ parents, but most commonly it was Aphrodite, the goddess of love, and Ares, the god of war in their lasting affair.

Things commonly associated with Valentine’s Day include hearts, and Cupid- but often gifted to their significant other, people give red roses. Red roses represent passion and love, while brighter red represents romance, a deeper maroon red represents lasting love. In Greek mythology, there are two differing stories of what may have made the roses red, both related to love and their goddess of love, Aphrodite. It was believed that a red rose grew from the tears of Aphrodite, due to the death of her lover, Adonis, a hunter killed by Ares. Another variation is that Eros was in a garden, and when stung, he accidentally shot a flower causing it to grow thorns. Aphrodite visited the garden and was struck by the thorn, causing her to bleed on the flower, turning the flower red.

Through all of the history surrounding Valentine’s Day, it has upheld a reputation of elaborate gestures, a suffocating amount of red, and the stress of picking the correct chocolates in a heart box. Although the holiday has pagan roots, it now represents love and is a fun day all around, for people with partners and people without, because who doesn’t love chocolate?