We have Valentine’s Day approaching this month and I find myself wondering when did this holiday start. Why did it start? Is it a Hallmark Cards generated holiday? Where did the traditions, if any, associated with this holiday begin? Was Valentine’s Day always February 14th? I am going to delve into these questions and more so please read on and join me into the world of Valentine’s Day.
According to https://www.britannica.com/topic/Valentines-Day, given their similarities, it has been suggested that the holiday has origins in the Roman festival of Lupercalia, held in mid-February. The festival, which celebrated the coming of spring, included fertility rites and the pairing off of women with men by lottery. At the end of the 5th century, Pope Gelasius I forbid the celebration of Lupercalia and is sometimes attributed with replacing it with St. Valentine’s Day, but the true origin of the holiday is vague at best. Valentine’s Day did not come to be celebrated as a day of romance until about the 14th century. Wow. This is a part of the holiday I have never heard about. What other mysteries can we uncover about this holiday?
Although there were several Christian martyrs named Valentine, the day may have taken its name from a priest who was martyred about 270 CE by the emperor Claudius II Gothicus. According to legend, the priest signed a letter “from your Valentine” to his jailer’s daughter, whom he had befriended and, by some accounts, healed from blindness. Other accounts hold that it was St. Valentine of Terni, a bishop, for whom the holiday was named, though it is possible the two saints were actually one person. Another common legend states that St. Valentine defied the emperor’s orders and secretly married couples to spare the husbands from war. It is for this reason that his feast day is associated with love. 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.
According to https://www.history.com/topics/valentines-day/valentines-day-facts, some trace Valentine’s Day origins to a Christian effort to replace a pagan fertility festival that has been dated as far back as the 6th century B.C. During the festival of Lupercalia, Roman priests would sacrifice goats and dogs and use their blood-soaked hides to slap women on the streets, as a fertility blessing. According to legend, women would later put their names in an urn and be selected to be paired with a man for a year. Every year, thousands of romantics send letters addressed to Verona, Italy to “Juliet,” the subject of the timeless romantic tragedy, “Romeo and Juliet.” The city marks the location of the Shakespearean tale, and the letters that reach the city are dutifully answered by a team of volunteers from the Juliet Club. Each year, on Valentine's Day, the club awards the "Cara Giulietta" ("Dear Juliet") prize to the author of the most touching love letter.
Another source, https://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/arts-and-culture/a9299/valentines-day-history/, states There have been at least three different martyred Saint Valentines recognized by the Catholic Church, making it tricky to identify the real-life man behind the holiday. However, popular legend holds that the Roman Emperor Claudius II executed one, Saint Valentine of Terni, on February 14 around 278 A.D. His crime? Valentine continued to perform marriage ceremonies in secret after Claudius II outlawed unions to encourage men to join the army. Supposedly, Valentine signed a farewell note before he was beheaded, "From Your Valentine." We may never know who this holiday is named for and that may be okay. Let us take a look at when it was declared an official holiday.
https://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/arts-and-culture/a9299/valentines-day-history/states an official declaration of the holiday was done by the papal church. In 496 A.D. Pope Gelasius declared February 14 as the First Feast Day of Saint Valentine. Whether this was purely a move to honor a Saint—or a strategic effort to Christianize the unsavory pagan Lupercalia—is still a subject of debate.
https://www.history.com/topics/valentines-day/history-of-valentines-day-2states Lupercalia survived the initial rise of Christianity 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. The English poet Geoffrey Chaucer was the first to record St. Valentine’s Day as a day of romantic celebration in his 1375 poem “Parliament of Foules,” writing, ““For this was sent on Seynt Valentyne’s day / Whan every foul cometh ther to choose his mate.” It seems a good time to look into the traditions of this day and when they started.
When was the first Valentine card given to a loved one? The answer may surprise you. 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. https://www.history.com/topics/valentines-day/history-of-valentines-day-2goes on to point out 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. https://www.history.com/topics/valentines-day/valentines-day-factsalso states the first Valentine was written from prison and tell a grim tale. History’s first valentine was written in perhaps one of the most unromantic places conceivable: a prison. Charles, Duke of Orleans wrote the love letter to his second wife at the age of 21 while captured at the Battle of Agincourt. As a prisoner for more than 20 years, he would never see his valentine’s reaction to the poem he penned to her in the early 15th century.
Did you know that there was even a way to rebuke a Valentine’s Day note or affection. https://www.history.com/topics/valentines-day/valentines-day-factsstates that during the Victoria Era, those who didn’t want the attention of certain suitors would anonymously send “vinegar valentines." These cards, also called penny dreadfuls, were the antithesis of customary valentines, comically insulting and rejecting unwanted admirers. They were later used to target suffragettes in the late 19th and early 20th century. I have often wondered what penny dreadfuls came from as that was a term I heard not spoken often.
Ever wonder whom we have to thank for the connection of giving flowers on Valentine’s Day was…..look no further as https://www.history.com/topics/valentines-day/valentines-day-factshas the answer. The tradition of giving flowers to loved ones on Valentine's Day originated in the 17th century when King Charles II of Sweden popularized "the language of flowers", or attaching conversationalist meanings to different types of flowers, throughout Europe. The most traditional type for Valentine's Day became the rose because of it's association with the Greek goddess of love, Aphrodite.
Did you know the expression “Wearing your heart on your sleeves” comes from Valentine’s Day? According to https://www.history.com/topics/valentines-day/valentines-day-facts, the term “wearing your heart on your sleeve” may have origins in picking a valentine. Smithsonian reports that during the Middle Ages, men would draw the names of women who they would be coupled with for the upcoming year while attending a Roman festival honoring Juno. After choosing, the men wore the names on their sleeves to show their bond during the festivities. Another interesting note attached with Valentine’s Day is the chalky Sweetheart candies. Their origin may surprise you and may make you rethink this candy. The iconic chalky heart-shaped candies that have been passed out lovingly every Valentine’s Day started out as lozenges. According to the Food Business News, pharmacist and inventor Oliver Chase created a machine that would quickly create the lozenges before switching to using the machine to create candy—later known as Necco Wafers. Chase’s brother came up with the idea to print messages on the candy in 1866, and the candies got their heart shape in 1901, appealing specifically to Valentine’s Day sweethearts. Who knew….
Do you know when and why Cupid became associated with Valentine’s Day? https://www.history.com/topics/valentines-day/valentines-day-factsexplains the chubby baby with wings and a bow and arrow that we call Cupid has been associated with Valentine’s Day for centuries. However, before he was renamed Cupid, he was known to the ancient Greeks as Eros, the god of love. Eros, the son of Greek goddess Aphrodite, would use two sets of arrows—one for love and another for hate—to play with the emotions of his targets. It wasn’t until stories of his mischief were told by Romans that he adopted the childlike appearance that we recognize today. Also do you know when the X became a symbol/letter to represent love and kisses. The idea of using a kiss to sign off on valentines also has a long history, according to the Washington Post. The use of “X” came to represent Christianity, or the cross, in the Middle Ages. During the same time, the symbol was used to sign off on documents. After marking with an X, the writer would often kiss the mark as a sign of their oath. As the gesture grew among kings and commoners to certify books, letters and paperwork, these records were described as having been “sealed with a kiss.” Who says you cannot keep learning new things. Wow.
https://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/arts-and-culture/a9299/valentines-day-history/and https://www.history.com/topics/valentines-day/history-of-valentines-day-2, printed Valentine’s are older than we realize. 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 Hallmark, an estimated 145 million Valentine’s Day cards are sent each year, making Valentine’s Day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year (more cards are sent at Christmas). Celebrating Valentine's Day steadily gained in popularity through the 19th century—especially once the greeting-card industry was in full swing thanks to the Industrial Revolution's printing press and cheaper postage. Esther A. Howland (known as "Mother of the Valentine") began selling the first mass-produced cards in America in the 1840s and Hallmark Cards entered the scene in 1913.
An interesting fact I came across about Valentine’s Day may surprise some of you as well. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Valentines-Daystates traditional gifts include candy and flowers, particularly red roses, a symbol of beauty and love. The day is popular in the United States as well as in Britain, Canada, and Australia, and it is also celebrated in other countries, including Argentina, France, Mexico, and South Korea. In the Philippines it is the most common wedding anniversary, and mass weddings of hundreds of couples are not uncommon on that date. The holiday has expanded to expressions of affection among relatives and friends. Many schoolchildren exchange valentines with one another on this day.
Valentine’s Day did have a huge dark day one year in Chicago which is in their history but has not affected people’s spirits there and still celebrate the holiday. https://www.history.com/news/valentines-day-massacre-caponewrites that Al Capone had another idea for this holiday to send a message. On the morning of Valentine’s Day, 1929, a group of men with tommy guns, a 12-gauge and police uniforms stepped out of a black Cadillac. Entering a garage belonging to the SMC Cartage Company at 2212 N. Clark St in Chicago, they lined up against the wall six gangsters and a gambler, blasting them to death, firing squad style. The newspapers called it a “gang shooting.” A city detective said the men “died like dogs.” The local coroner, Herman N. Bundesen, who had done many things in his life, from educating Chicagoans about syphilis to writing a baby-rearing manual, found himself at the heart of the case. Working with the police commissioner and state attorney, he empanelled a special jury of six leading businessmen and officials. The evidence they would sift through included bullets embedded in the wall where the men had been shot and the hats that the alleged gangsters had been wearing when they died. Getting to the bottom of the case was a matter of extreme urgency. To the press and public, the Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre was a sign that gang violence in Prohibition-era (1920-33) America was spiraling out of control. Far from tempering Americans’ habits, all it had done was put cash in the pockets and blood on the hands of men like the 30-year old mob boss many suspected of having ordered the hit: Alphonse Gabriel ‘Al’ Capone. I share this to empathize that tragedy can happen on any day and is up to the individuals how it will affect them.
Valentine’s Day is a day about remembering the ones we love. Could be family members, friends, partners, spouses, significant others and even pets. This day is a reminder in my opinion to look past all the hardship starting this new year and remember to say to those who are supporting you and being there for you a simple acknowledgment of thank you and love you for all you do. After finding out all of this history about this day, I know it will forever have new meaning in my heart. I offer all of you who read this a simple request, turn to the people around you and just simply say love all you do for me and appreciate everything. A little kindness it seems can echo throughout history. Even the darkest of times can be turned around with a simply act of kindness and acknowledgement of someone being seen.