How Did Valentine’s Day Begin?
Madison Garcia (8)
Have you wondered how Valentine’s Day began? Wondered where all the sweetheart candies came from? Well, many people have wondered how Valentine’s Day became a thing and why it is celebrated in February.
What is Valentine’s Day?
Valentine’s Day is a holiday that is celebrated for lovers to express their affection with greetings and gifts such as teddy bears and roses that symbolize romance. It is also known as St. Valentine’s Day. It is always celebrated on February 14th. It is very popular in the United States, as well as Canada, Britain, Australia, Argentina, France, Mexico and South Korea. In the Philippines, it is usually a wedding anniversary and the mass weddings on this day are not uncommon.
Valentine’s Day Origins
It contains vestiges of both Christian and ancient Roman traditions. There are Christian churches that believe that Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with families, he outlawed marriage for young men. Valentine deified Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. After Valentine’s actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death. Others suggest that Valentine may have been killed for attempting to help Christians escape harsh Roman prisons, where they were beaten and tortured.
The Pagan Festival of February
Some believe that it is celebrated in the middle of February to celebrate the anniversary of Valentine’s death or burial—which probably occurred around 270 A.D.—others claim that the Christian church may have decided to place St. Valentine’s feast day in the middle of February in an effort to “Christianize” the celebration of Lupercalia. Celebrated in the middle of February, Lupercalia was a festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, as well as to the Roman founders named Romulus and Remus. To begin the festival, members of the Luperci, Roman priests, gather at a sacred cave where the infants Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, were believed to have been cared for by a “she-wolf”. The priests would sacrifice a goat and a dog. They would strip the goat’s hide into strips, dipping them into sacrificial blood and gently slapping both women and crop fields with the goat hide. Roman women welcomed the touch of the hides because it was believed to make them more fertile in the coming year.
Valentine’s Day Traditions: New and Improved
You may have thought that Valentine’s Day traditions have always been the way they are now, but that isn’t the case. For example, roses weren’t always the go-to Valentine’s flower. In the 19th century, bouquets could contain a variety of flowers, each chosen to convey a special meaning. In one article, Elizabeth White Nelson, an associate professor of history at the University of Nevada, explains that for Valentine’s Day, “The idea was that you could give a bouquet that was not just a bouquet of flowers. It had a whole message encoded into the flowers.”
A bouquet with yellow acacia (which means “concealed love”), jonquils (“I desire a return of affection”) and snowdrops (“hope”) sends the message that you secretly adore them and hope those feelings might be reciprocated. Nelson notes that sending these bouquets in the 19th century “depends on who you are and what kind of flowers you have access to, which I would say is a very small group of people in the middle of the winter in the United States.”
She adds, “At the end of the [19th] century, you get more commercial florists and therefore more availability of flowers at more affordable price points…” Another example is that February 14 is also for friends, not just lovers. Parts of Latin America, including Ecuador, El Salvador and Mexico, it’s known as El Día del Amor y Amistad (Day of Love and Friendship), it’s meant to recognize and honor friendship. Ian Alexander said, “…Is a day for people to celebrate love of all kinds, whether it be platonic or romantic.”
Hopefully you have learned a little about the history of this holiday. I know that I did.