St Valentine's Day Here's How It Started!

In the Beginning

The Roman Feast of Lupercalia that dates back to 300BC is probably how Valentines Day originally started. So every year between February 13 and February 15, the Romans engaged in celebrations and rituals to honor the coming of spring. One of these rituals involved sacrificing a dog or a goat and using its skin to whip women, an act that was believed to increase their fertility. 

In addition, The Feast of Lupercalia started the ancient version of a blind date: a lottery was drawn with men’s and women’s names and randomly matched to spend the holiday together. If they fancied each other at the end of the feast, they would marry soon after. 

 Valentine’s Day

In the 5th century A.D., Pope Delasius 1 had the pagan holiday cease and replace it with a day for the celebration of a martyr called Valentine, who was executed by Emperor Claudius II.

There are a number of stories as to who St Valentine actually was. One tells the story of a Christian priest who was imprisoned and fell in love with his jailer’s daughter. Before his death, he signed a love letter to her with the words “from your Valentine.” 

Another story tells of a priest who ignored Emperor Claudius II's ban on marriage for young men in his army. The priest continued to marry couples who were in love for which he was eventually executed.

 Modern History

The man famous for sending (supposedly) the first Valentine’s Day card was the young Duke of Orleans. In 1415, while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London, he sent a poem titled Farewell to Love to his 16-year-old wife Bonne of Armagnac. Charles, apparently, liked writing poems, as he would eventually produce more than 500 of them during his life.  

Curiously, Bonne was Charles’ second of three wives. The first one he married when he was 12 and she was 17. His third wife was 14 at the time of marriage and Charles was 46, after having spent 25 years in prison.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, St Valentine's Day began resembling the commercialisation as we know it now. The common folk exchanged cards whilst the aristocracy and wealthy engaged in more expensive celebrations. 

For example in the European courts, elaborate displays of fashion and style were already common, the holiday was celebrated by gifting expensive presents to selected people called “Valentines” and “the formal offering of compliments in rhyme and verse.”  

Commercialization

Due to the United States becoming an emerging consumer culture, St. Valentine’s Day became popular by the influence of advertising.

The famous Hallmark cards from the 1920s through to the 1930s were made by hand until lithography made colour printing possible.

Then in the 1840s, an American newspaper called The Public Ledger endorsed the holiday saying that people needed “more soul-play and less head-work” and more opportunities that allowed for an “abandon of feeling.” The meaning of “valentine” transformed from signifying a person to referring to an object of exchange. 

Soon the marketing machines around the world convinced consumers to celebrate through the purchase of cards, chocolates, flowers, and jewelry.

Later a whole Valentine’s Day family emerged called the Valentine Week. These are the seven days before February 14, each of which has a special name to encourage the celebration of love. Starting on February 7 the days are: Rose Day, Propose Day, Chocolate Day, Teddy Day, Promise Day, Hug Day and Kiss Day.

Today Valentine's Day is a huge commercial industry with the US consumer spending $19.8billion in 2018.

At the end of the day, it is up to us how we choose to spend this day but taking part in a collective ritual has a positive effect on our feelings of belonging.

So my wish to you all is Happy Valentine's Day!