It’s February the 14th! The most romantic day of the year. Every February 14th, people across the world exchange chocolates, roses and meaningful gifts with their loved ones, all in the name of St. Valentine. It is considered to the best day to express your love and care for your special one or even express your feelings to the one you love. But do they really know the history behind this day? It is considered to the best day to express your love for your significant other – or to your family and friends! While many of us lap up Valentines Day, a number of us don’t actually know why…
We’ve trawled through the history books to try and discover the real reasons – and what we found casts a very different light on the holiday.
According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, there were at least three early Christian saints by the name ‘Valentine’, so the St Valentine that inspired the holiday may have been more than one man.
The saint officially recognised by the Roman Catholic Church was a real person who died around AD 270, but an account from 1400s describes Valentine as a priest who was beheaded by Emperor Claudius II for helping Christian couples wed. The emperor had banned marriage as he thought single men made better soldiers. Valentine felt this was unfair so he celebrated marriages in secret. When the emperor found out he was thrown in jail and sentenced to death.
Valentine’s Day is an old tradition thought to have originated from a Roman Festival known as ‘Lupercalia’. It was held on February 15 as a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman God of agriculture. During the celebration boys would draw names of girls and the pair would be partners during the festival – a match that often led to marriage.
The festival survived the initial rise of Christianity but was outlawed at the end of the 5th century when Pope Gelasius declared February 14 St Valentine’s Day.
But when did it become a tradition to celebrate love on this day? Well, St Valentine did help marry couples in secret, which is arguably very romantic and a celebration of love in itself. He is the patron saint of beekeepers and epilepsy among other things… like the plague, fainting and travelling (not so romantic). That doesn’t stop people calling on his help for those romantically involved. He’s now also the patron saint of engaged couples and happy marriages.
However, it’s thought that Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales writer, may have actually been behind ‘creating’ the tradition of celebrating Valentine’s Day. The medieval English poet apparently took quite a few liberties with history, dropping his poetic characters into real-life historical events leaving readers wondering if that’s what really happened.
There is no official actual record of Valentine’s Day before Chaucer’s poem in 1375 in which he linked the tradition of courtly love to the St Valentine’s feast day. The poem refers to February 14 as the day of ‘birds coming together to find a mate’…
“For this was sent on Seynt Valentyne’s day / Whan every foul cometh ther to choose his mate,” he wrote.
The tradition didn’t seem to exist until after his poem. So he may have actually “invented” Valentine’s Day as we now know it. Happy Valentines Day everyone!