Valentine’s Day is a worldwide famous holiday celebrated on February 14. It’s known as the day when people show their affection for others. Indeed, this holiday is now well known for finding flower arrangements, chocolates and heart-shaped decorations everywhere.
It is widely known that the day is in honor of Saint Valentine, but how did this day start and how did it become what it is now?
Saint Valentine
The day has its origin thanks to a famous saint and though there are many different stories about him, the popular belief is that he was a priest from Rome in the third century, AD.
During that time, Emperor Claudius II had banned marriage because he considered men who were married weren’t good soldiers. Valentine couldn’t “let love die” so he broke the rules and started arranging marriages in secret. After the emperor discovered it, Valentine was thrown in jail and sentenced to death.
Origin of the holiday
Some believe the holiday commemorates the anniversary of Valentine’s death or burial. Other, however, consider the feast day was selected in February with the idea to “Christianize” the pagan celebration of Lupercalia, which was a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture.
As part of the celebrations, boys drew names of girls from a box, this would lead to making them boyfriend and girlfriend during the festival and sometimes it would even lead to marriage.
At the end of the 5th century, Pope Gelasius declared February 14 the feast of Saint Valentine but it would become associated with love after some time.
Celebrations
During the middle Ages, February 14 was considered as the beginning of birds’ mating season, so this added to the idea that the holiday should be about romance.
The so known “Valentine greetings” became popular during the middle Ages. The oldest known Valentine in existence is a poem written in 1415 by Charles, Duke of Orleans, to his wife while he was imprisoned.
Later on, Valentine’s Day became a popular holiday in Great Britain in the middle of the 18th century expanding the celebration to France, America, Australia, and later to different countries in Asia.
Today, it’s easy to find printed cards, chocolates, flower arrangements, jewelry and practically anything designed thinking about Valentine’s Day. People have hundreds of options to buy something for that special person. Only in the US, it is estimated that 1 billion Valentine’s Day cards are sent each year, which makes the holiday the second largest card-sending holiday after Christmas.
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