The History of Valentine’s Day

Valentine’s Day is the time of candlelit dinners, red roses and heart shaped chocolate boxes, but where did it start and how did it become the day of love as it is known today?

The Catholic Church believes Saint Valentine to have been a priest who was sentenced to death by Emperor Claudius ll in the third century. When Claudius decided single men made better soldiers than those with families, he outlawed marriage for young men. Believing this to be an injustice, Valentine continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret, leading to his execution on February 14th.

Other versions of the story recall an imprisoned Saint Valentine helping Christians escape harsh Roman prisons, and restoring sight to the blind. And when faced with execution, it is said he wrote a farewell note to a girl who had visited him, signed ‘Your Valentine.’ Although the real story of Saint Valentine is shrouded in mystery, what is clear is his appeal as an heroic and romantic figure.

It is likely that Valentine’s Day has it’s true origins in the Lupercalia Festival of Ancient Rome, which has over time merged with the legends of Saint Valentine and the Christianisation of it’s traditions. Originally a raucous, wine-fueled fertility rite in which Roman men and women paired off, it was gradually transformed into a celebration of Saint Valentine as Rome became less Pagan and more Christian. At the end of the fifth century, Pope Gelasius declared February 14th St. Valentine’s Day. It was not until much later, however, that the day became definitively associated with love.

With its mysterious origins involving secret marriages, fertility, heroes and love letters, over the centuries February 14th has become romanticised in poetry and literature.The English poet Geoffrey Chaucer was the first to record St. Valentine’s Day as a day of romantic celebration in 1375, writing, ““For this was sent on Seynt Valentyne’s day / Whan every foul cometh ther to choose his mate.”

Valentine’s Day is now celebrated all over the world and is one of the most lucrative times of the year for greeting card companies, second only to Christmas!


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