Valentine's Day Origins and Traditions

Who is St. Valentine? Legends point to a number of possibilities and what becomes apparent when researching into the origins of Valentine's Day is that February seems to have been a month of celebrating love all over the world, since ancient times.

Who Was Valentine?

Some say Valentine was a priest who served in Rome around 270AD. Romans would flock to the temple which was situated close to Claudius' palace, to hear his words. Many wars broke out in the Roman Empire and after fighting for years and years, many of the Romans, who were married men, did not want to leave their families and were unwilling to fight. The Emperor solved this problem by decreeing that no marriages should be celebrated and all engagements should be broken immediately.

When Valentine heard of this, he was against it. A young couple came to his temple and he secretly united them in marriage. Word got round and more young couples came to Valentine to be quietly married. Valentine was the friend of all lovers in Rome.

The Origins of St. Valentine's Day

Eventually Claudius heard of these secret marriages and commanded his soldiers to cast Valentine into a dungeon. The priest was dragged from the temple and despite many people pleading for his release, Claudius refused and Valentine died in the dungeon. Other legends speak of him having been beaten to death with clubs before having his head cut off. Valentine was buried in the Church of St Praxedes in the year 270 AD, on February 14th.

Whilst Valentine was in prison, some say he fell in love with his jailer's blind daughter. His love for her, along with his great faith, managed to miraculously heal her blindness before his death. His farewell message to her was "From your Valentine."

Other Catholic St. Valentines

According to the Catholic Encyclopaedia, there are at least three St. Valentines: one being a priest in Rome, another a bishop of Interamna and another who lived and died in Africa. While many believe Valentine's Day is celebrated on the 14th to commemorate the anniversary of Valentine's burial, others think the Christian Church may have decided to celebrate Valentine's day in the middle of February in an attempt to "Christianise" celebrations of the pagan Lupercalia festival.

Ancient Roman Festivals in February

The ancient Roman festival of Lupercalia was celebrated on 15th February when Luperci priests would gather at the cave of Lupercal where, according to legend, Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, had been nursed by a mother wolf.

During this festival, goats and dogs were sacrificed in the cave. Their blood was smeared on the heads of youths then washed off with milk as a symbol of purification and of sacred rebirth. In Christian times the feast was renamed as the festival of the Purification of the Virgin.

Included in these rituals, youths of noble birth would run through the streets in goatskin thongs lashing young women with their sacred thongs as this was believed to make them better able to bear children. The Luperica continued long after Rome became a walled city and when Roman armies invaded Britain and France, they brought these customs with them.

Valentine's Day Customs

One of these customs is said to be a lottery where the names of Roman maidens were placed in a jar and drawn out by young men. Whichever girl's name a youth drew out of the box would be classed as his "love" for a year or longer.

Nowadays Valentine's Day is celebrated in Canada, America, Mexico, England, France and Australia. In the UK Valentines greetings were popular as far back as the Middle Ages. By the eighteenth century, friends and lovers in all walks of life would exchange small tokens of affection or handwritten notes and by the end of that century, printed cards began to replace letters.

Now, according to the Greeting Card Association, an estimated one billion Valentine cards are sent every year in honour of St. Valentine.

Sources:
Imler, K. Valentine's Day (Holiday Histories). Heinemann Library 2008.
Bulla, C R. The Story of Valentine's Day. Harper Trophy 2000.