History of Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is a celebration of romantic love occurring annually on February 14. Although it is associated by legend with a Catholic saint named Valentine, modern Valentine's Day is not a religious holiday. Today's Valentine's Day has historical roots both in Greco-Roman pagan fertility festivals and the medieval notion that birds pair off to mate on February 14. The custom of exchanging cards and other tokens of love on February 14 began to develop in England and France in the 14th and 15th centuries and became especially popular in the United States in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Over the last decade or so, Valentine's Day observance has spread to the Far East, India, and the Middle East. In Japan, China and Taiwan, distinctive customs have developed to mark the day of love, most of which reflect the commercialistic emphasis of the West. In India and the Middle East, Valentine's Day has met with a warm reception among many, especially urban youth, but strong consternation from some conservative Hindus and Muslims History of Valentine's Day. The association of the middle of February with love and fertility dates to ancient times. In ancient Athens, the period between mid-January and mid-February was the month of Gamelion, which was dedicated to the sacred marriage of Zeus and Hera.In ancient Rome, February 15 was Lupercalia, the festival of Lupercus, the god of fertility. As part of the purification ritual, the priests of Lupercus would sacrifice goats and a dog to the god, and after drinking wine, they would run through the streets of Rome striking anyone they met with pieces of the goat skin.

Young women would come forth voluntarily for the occasion, believing that being touched by the goat skin would render them fertile. Young men would also draw names from an urn, choosing their "blind date" for the coming year. In 494 AD the Christian church under Pope Gelasius I appropriated the some aspects of the rite as the Feast of the Purification. In Christianity, at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentines, all of them martyrs, are mentioned in the early lives of the saints under the date of February 14. Two of the Valentines lived in Italy in the third century: one as a priest at Rome, the other as bishop of Terni.

They are both said to have been martyred in Rome and buried on the Flaminian Way. A third St. Valentine was martyred in North Africa and very little else is known of him. Several legends have developed around one or more of these Valentines, two of which are especially popular. According to one account, Emperor Claudius II outlawed marriage for all young men because he believed unmarried men made better soldiers. Valentine defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young couples and was put to death by the emperor for it. A related legend has Valentine writing letters from prison to his beloved, signing them "From your Valentine."