History of Valentine’s Day

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.

 Contents
o The Legend of St. Valentine
o Origins of Valentine’s Day: A Pagan Festival in February
o Valentine’s Day: A Day of Romance
o Typical Valentine’s Day Greetings

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?

Did You Know?

Approximately 150 million Valentine's Day cards are exchanged annually, making
Valentine's Day the second most popular card-sending holiday after Christmas.

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 1 billion Valentine’s Day cards are sent each year,
making Valentine’s Day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year. (An
estimated 2.6 billion cards are sent for Christmas.) Women purchase approximately 85
percent of all valentines.