Many people do not know the history of this romantic holiday but look to Saint Valentine. However, who was Saint Valentine after all? There were at least three different saints during the third century that had the name Valentine or Valentinus, which the means “strong and healthy.”
Legend has it that Saint Valentine was a priest in Rome when Emperor Claudius II declared that single men would make better soldiers than married ones, so he outlawed marriage. Saint Valentine obviously wasn’t a fan of this policy, so he continued to marry young couples in secret. He eventually was found out and put to death, on the 14th of February about 270 AD.
A February 15th fertility festival named Lupercalia plays a part in the holiday’s tradition. Men would draw women’s names out of an urn, and the matches frequently ended in marriage. This festival was deemed un-Christian by the 5th century, which led Pope Gelasius to declare Feb 14th as Valentine’s Day in honor of the martyred Saint Valentine and to end the pagan celebration. Not long after that, it became associated with love.
The earliest known Valentine’s Day card appeared in the 1400s. February 14th was believed the beginning of the mating season for birds in England and France in the Middle Ages. This belief also adds to the root meaning of celebrating Love on Feb 14th!
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