The History of Valentines Day
The creator of Valentines Day was Pope Gelasius, declared February 14 around the 14th century as a holiday, which was focused on expressing romantic love through gifts, special time spent with your partner and is named after Saint Valentine, a Christian martyr who is said to have performed secret weddings for Roman soldiers and defying the emperor’s ban on marriage against the orders of a Roman emperor. While the exact origin story is unclear. many historians believe Valentine’s Day has roots in the Roman festival “Lupercalia”, a mid-February celebration of fertility that involved pairing off men and women through a lottery.
Valentines Day has their image being Cupid, the Roman god of love, and is often depicted on Valentine’s Day cards as a winged cherub shooting arrows for inspiring love and representing love, adding traditional gifts like flowers, especially roses, because red roses are a symbol of love within Greek mythology. The reason why is because they were sacred to Aphrodite, the goddess of love and in Valentine’s day it is normal to give chocolates with personalized cards. The most famous phrase is “Wearing your heart on your sleeve.” This phrase may have originated from a medieval practice where men would wear the name of their chosen partner on their sleeve during a Valentine’s Day celebration.
Some fun facts about Valentines Day is that the oldest letter card poem was written by Charles, Duke of Orleans in 1415. The Emperor Claudius II executed two men and both of them were named Valentine, on Feb. 14 of different years in the third century. Their martyrdom was honored by the Catholic Church with the celebration of St. Valentine’s Day. Some scholars believe that Valentine’s Day has its roots in the ancient Roman festival of Lupercalia, which was a brutal festival where animals were sacrificed. In 2022, Americans spent more than $23.9 billion on Valentine’s Day.
