Valentine’s Day

February 8, 2010 • Rebecca Dove  
Filed under Entertainment

February 14^th, also known as Valentine’s Day, across the world people exchange candy, flowers, and gifts to show their love for their significant other, but who is St. Valentine?Today, the Catholic Church recognizes at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus.

One story behind St. Valentine is that he was a priest in the third century Rome, and when Emperor Claudius II “realized” that single men made better soldiers than men that were married and had wives and children he outlawed marriage for young men, but St. Valentine continued to perform marriage ceremonies for lovers in secret, but when St. Valentine was discovered he was ordered to be put to death. Another story says that St. Valentine sent the first “valentine greeting” himself. St. Valentine was in prison, and it is told that he fell in love with a young woman, probably the jailor’s daughter, and he wrote her a love letter and signed “From your Valentine,” and that same expression is still used today.

There are many possible reasons that Valentine’s Day is celebrated on February 14^th, one possible reason is to commemorate the anniversary of St. Valentine’s burial or death. A different reason suggests that Valentine’s Day is celebrated in the middle of February to “Christianize” Pagan celebrations that occur around the same time. One more reasonable explanation suggests that Valentine’s Day was placed on February 14^th because on February 15^th there was a festival dedicated to St. Fanus, Roman God of Agriculture. Another plausible reason that Valentine’s Day is on February 14^th is because it is the art of the birds mating season, so it was suggested that February 14^th should be a day for romance.

During the seventeenth and eighteenth century, in Great Britain Valentine’s Day was celebrated by handwriting love notes and sending or giving them to their lover. Near the end of the eighteenth century, pre-printed cards began to replace written letters because of technological advancements. Cheaper postage and the availability of already printed cards made sending Valentine’s Day greetings popular. Approximately eighty five percent of all valentines are bought by women. Valentine’s Day is celebrated in the United States, Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, France, and Australia.

To find out more about Valentine’s Day you can log onto http://www.history.com/content/valentine, but all of the information in this article was from http://www.history.com/content/valentine/history-of-valentine-s-day.

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