The Origins of Valentine's Day

When we are reminded of Valentine's day we think of heart filled boxes of chocolate, flowers and romance. Little cupids with their arrows of love and cards that express how we feel about each another. We are encouraged to share an extra special night with the ones that we love the most. But how exactly did this holiday come to be?.

Around the year of 270 A.D. the Roman empire started encountering problems. Their trading was bad, taxes were up and other surrounding countries noticed this. They put constant pressure on the boundaries of Rome. Security forces surrounding the city had to become larger. A new, bigger army was needed to protect Rome.

At the time, the ruling Emperor was Cladius-II. He thought that married men would not be sufficient soldiers. They would have too much regard for their families, and would be too emotional. He decided they would not make good soldiers at all. His solution was to ban marriage altogether.

Before Cladius, the God Lupercus rite of passage was used. Men who had come of age chose potential partners from picking names of teenage women from a box. The man was then given a mate to serve his needs, for exactly a year. The process was repeated year after year. After 800 years the church sought to end this. The found their way out when they researched a Priest turned Bishop. His name was Valentine, and he had been martyred and sainted.

Valentine was a Priest that was sympathetic to all the young lovers who were unable to marry, or have a life together. He would often meet these young lovers late at night in a secret place and marry them. As time went on word spread of these secret marriages and soon Cladius himself found out and had Valentine arrested.

Unable to convert Valentine to the Roman Gods, Cladius had no other choice but to have him executed.

While Valentine was in prison he healed a jailor's daughter. Right before his death he wrote the girl a note and signed it with, "From your valentine." Which is how we sign our cards to this day.

Valentine eventually became a saint and overseer of the day in which young people could profess their love through the writing of sentiments, to the ones who they wished to be with. Using of course, a card. We all know this day as February 14th, St. Valentines day.

After poor St. Valentine had such a tough time trying to join couples together, I think we all owe it to him to celebrate Valentine's day to the fullest.