The Origins of Valentine's Day

Each February, millions of people flock to the local card shop in search of just the right card. Florists celebrate their busiest season. And hearts abound, literally. But many people do not realize the true history of February 14, or Valentine's Day.

There are several different variations on the possible true history of this celebration of love and romance, and all contain a mix of history from the Catholic Church, Rome and Europe.

It is generally thought that St. Valentine's Day may have begun because the Catholic Church needed a method of introducing Christianity during the Pagan festival known as Lupercalia, which occurred in February. Also, somewhere around 270 A.D. St. Valentine was killed during February. Coincidentally, both served as a reason to begin celebrating St. Valentine's Day on February the fourteenth.

Where Rome comes is – is that February marks the end of winter and indicates a time of purification. Lupercalia was a celebration intended to honor the god of fertility, who provided the wheat (spelt) ceremoniously sprinkled in Roman homes during the arrival of Spring.

During Lupercalia, goats and other animals were sacrificed and their blood shed and smeared upon strips of their hides. Roman women reveled at being touched by the young boys wielding these strips in the streets of Rome, as they blessed all who were touched with the promise of fertility in the coming year.

The second part of the Lupercalia festival was when all single women placed their names into a large container in the town square. Each single man in Rome chose from the container the name of a woman with whom they were to be paired for the coming year. Rumor is, many marriages arose from these celebratory pairings.

February in Europe is the beginning of the mating season for birds, and this just further influenced the decision of the adoption of February 14 as Valentine's Day, the celebration of love and romance.

The first real celebration of Valentines Day appears to have been in Great Britain during the seventeenth century, although the oldest known valentine was a poem written in the 1400s from Charles, Duke of Orleans to his wife after he was imprisoned in the Tower of London.

In the United States, celebrations of Valentines Day began in the 1700s. Commercialized ready-to-use greeting cards became widely available in the 1840s. The popularity of commercially available greeting cards is attributed to several factors including social behavior expectations and postage rates. Expressing emotions often conveyed through letters was socially discouraged during this time period. Thus, a pre-written card reduced the amount of emotion the card-sender needed to include. And, greeting cards used a cheaper postage rate than bulky letters. The cost-savings made the use of pre-made Valentines very popular among Americans.

Globally, Valentine's Day is now celebrated in The U.S., France, Mexico, Canada, Great Britain and Australia. Interestingly enough, it is not celebrated in Italy. Nearly a billion cards are given to honor the celebration of love, that number being second only to the amount of cards sent for Christmas.

*Source Anti v-day.com