Is Valentine’s Day a Marketing Scam? The Real History Behind Valentine’s Day.

We’ve probably all heard the story that Valentine’s Day was invented by marketers and card companies. That it’s just a commercial holiday with no real meaning. But Valentine’s Day has a long and interesting history, so let’s explore the true meaning of Valentine’s Day.

First of all, who was St. Valentine anyway?

Well, there were a few. The Catholic Church recognises (at least) three different saints named Valentine. Not only that, Valentine was a really popular name in ancient Rome and there’re at least fifty (!!) stories of different saints by that name.

But here are the two most famous ones.

One Valentine was a priest that served under Emperor Claudius II (269 CE). The emperor outlawed marriage as he believed single men made better soldiers, but romantic Valentine thought this unjust and?continued performing marriages for young lovers in secret. Needless to say, when he was discovered, he was put to death on February 14th.

There’s even one version in which Valentine actually sent the first Valentine's greeting. He gave his lover a letter signed ‘From your Valentine.’ Sound familiar?

Another possibility is Saint Valentine of Terni, a bishop who was also credited with secret weddings and also killed on February 14th (also by order of Claudius II).

Albeit, the two stories sound very familiar. Bruce Forbes, a professor of religious studies, said ‘The two stories that everybody talks about, the bishop and the priest, they’re so similar that it makes me suspicious.’ Both stories involve secret marriage, healing a child during imprisonment and not only dying on the same day, but also being buried next to the same road.

Perhaps it’s a myth and there never was a Valentine. But the day has come far from celebrating the life of a saint, so does it even matter?

Another (possibly stronger) connection to Valentine’s Day and Ancient Rome is the Lupercalia.

The Lupercalia was an ancient festival held each year in Rome on February 15 and can be tracked back to 6th century BCE. It was a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, Roman god of agriculture, as well as to the Roman founders Romulus and Remus.

It was celebrated by sacrifices, whipping and feasts (naturally) but also of a match-making tradition. The young women of the city would place their names in a jar and the bachelors would each randomly pick a name. The two would then be paired for the year and these matches often ended in marriage.

You can find out more about the Lupercalia here: https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-rome/lupercalia

Some historians claim the Christian church might’ve placed St. Valentine’s feast day in the middle of February as an effort to “Christianise” Lupercalia. The festival survived until the end of the 5th century when it was deemed “un-Christian” and Pope Gelasius declared February 14 as St. Valentine’s Day.

Which takes us to the Middle Ages and Geoffrey Chaucer.

It wasn’t until the Middle Ages that St Valentine, and the day in general, became properly associated with love. For this, we can thank Chaucer. Written between 1380–90 his poem ‘Parliament of Foules’ contains the line ‘For this was sent on Seynt Valentyne’s day / Whan every foul cometh ther to choose his mate.’? Come the 1400s, nobles had begun writing poems known as ‘valentines’ to their love interests.

You can read the full ‘Parliament of Foules’ here: https://www.librarius.com/parliamentfs.htm

Believe it or not, there’s controversy to this story. In the Middle Ages, it was supposedly believed that February 14 was the beginning of birds’ mating season. But UCLA scholar Henry Kelly argues that Chaucer wasn’t thinking of February 14, but of May 3, a day that celebrates a different Saint Valentines and is amongst the actual mating season of birds.

Kelly believes that Chaucer wanted to celebrate King Richard II’s betrothal to Anne of Bohemia on the same day. But his contemporaries were more familiar with the February 14th Valentine’s Day and so this became the day associated with love.

And yet there are more Roman roots…

Cupid was known to the Ancient Greeks as Eros, the god of love. One of the first authors to mention Eros was Hesiod in his ‘Theogony’ (circa 700 BCE). ?Eros is described as ‘the dissolver of flesh, who overcomes the reason and purpose in the breasts of all gods and all men.’

Somewhat similarly to our Cupid, Eros had a bow and a quiver full of arrows that were either golden and would arouse desire or leaden and would ignite aversion. He would strike at the hearts of both the gods and the mortals, playing with their emotions.

Originally, he was portrayed as a muscular man but by the emergence of Rome (about 323 BCE) he was represented as a playful child, not too dissimilar to the one we think of today.

It was in the 19th century, with the popularisation of Valentine's Day cards, that Cupid became associated with the holiday. This cherubic version of Cupid on Valentine’s Day cards has remained incredibly common since then.

Speaking of which, wasn’t Valentine’s Day invented by card companies? ?

This is a myth used time and time again. This assumption is credited to have come from a line of dialogue in ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.’ Joel, a fairly cynical character says ‘Valentine's Day is a holiday invented by greeting card companies to make people feel like crap.’

But, as we’ve already discovered, this simply isn’t true. Valentine’s Day in some shape or form existed long before card companies capitalised on the holiday. Even before the 18th century, people exchanged gifts (gloves and spoons were traditional).

But this doesn’t mean to say that Valentine’s Day Cards didn’t cause a boom of sorts. ?

The first commercial Valentine's cards were printed during the mid-1800s. On 10 January 1840, the Uniform Penny Post was introduced meaning Valentine cards could be mailed for just one penny and with this, the mass-produced Valentine card was born.

Valentines were even sent in such great numbers that postmen were given special allowances for refreshments to help them through the extraordinary exertions of the few days leading up to February 14th.

While in the US, it’s been reported that Valentine's Day is owed at least in part to entrepreneur Esther Howland. Howland, inspired by valentines brought from Great Britain by her father, started making valentines in 1848 with an assembly-line operation and first advertised in 1850.

You can learn more about Esther Howland here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/abrambrown/2020/02/14/cupids-capitalist-meet-esther-howland-the-19th-century-creator-of-the-modern-valentine/?sh=40d4ddb76cab

Before this time, Valentines often lasted a year and were still associated as being a precursor to marriage. But in the 19th Century, the exchange of Valentine's were a way for people of the emerging middle class to negotiate the relationship between romantic love and the economic reality of marriage.

But, what has Valentine’s Day become in our modern era?

These days, approximately 145 million Valentine’s Day cards are exchanged. This makes Valentine’s Day the second-largest holiday for giving greetings cards.

Not only that but from 2013 to 2022, the average amount of money spent per person to celebrate the occasion has increased by 33.9% and the total Valentine’s Day spending has increased by 28.5%.

With the recent domination of social media, Valentine’s Day has taken a new resurgence.

An article published by the University of Nevada claims the day’s actually about how ‘you perform the idea of love rather than actually express or engage in the act of love’ and that while ‘Facebook and other social media have made Valentine’s Day more viral and more toxic, […] the framework was already there.’

You can find the article here: https://www.unlv.edu/news/release/hidden-history-valentines-day

But the day has also taken a new meaning for many. There’s now Galetines and Palentine’s Day and singles parties. People give gifts to their families and pets and even themselves!?

So, what have we learned?

If Valentine’s wasn’t invented by marketing tactics, where does it come from? The answer: who knows. Maybe it was when the Romans began celebrating the Lupercalia, or when Pope Gelasius declared it as St Valentine’s Day, or when Geoffrey Chaucer mentioned it in his works, or maybe even when the card companies started mass producing cards.

But, is Valentine’s Day a marketing scam?

Yes, marketing takes advantage of the occasion, as with pretty much every other holiday or occasion. Can it be cheesy and a little annoying? Sure. But maybe it also gives you an excuse to treat someone that you’ve been meaning to for a while, or a nudge when you’ve lost all inspiration.?????????

Is Valentine’s Day also an excuse to get something nice for someone you care about (yourself included) simply because you love them? Absolutely. It doesn’t have to be expensive or a ‘performance.’ The beauty is, you can celebrate it however you want to!??

Many claim that it’s a made-up holiday, that you shouldn’t need an occasion to prove you love someone. But that’s the point. It’s a day of celebrating love simply for the sake of it.

Want to learn more about Valentine’s Day? Here are some other interesting sources:

https://www.history.com/news/6-surprising-facts-about-st-valentine

https://www.history.com/news/real-st-valentine-medieval

https://www.history.com/news/victorian-valentines-day-cards-vinegar