Val’s Day renowned for being the most romantic day of the year, prompting many people to use it as an opportunity to show affection for our loved ones.
Why February 14?
Valentine’s Day is an old tradition thought to have originated from a Roman festival known as Lupercalia, according to history.com.
It was held on February 15 as a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture.
During the celebrations, boys would draw names of girls from a box and the pair would be partners during the festival. These matches often led to marriage.
The festival survived the initial rise of Christianity but was outlawed at the end of the Fifth century when Pope Gelasius declared February 14 St Valentine’s Day.
The Canterbury Tales writer, Geoffrey Chaucer, in a 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,” Chaucer wrote and maybe invented Valentine’s Day as we now know it.
The St Valentine that inspired the holiday may have been more than one man, though. The saint officially recognised by the Roman Catholic Church was a real person who died around AD 270.
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.
He may also have been Bishop of Terni, also martyred by Claudius II on the outskirts of Rome.
There are similarities between the priest’s and bishop’s stories, which leads people to believe they are the same man.
There’s so much confusion around St Valentine that the Church stopped veneration of him in 1969, though he is still listed as an official saint.
“Valentinus” is from the Latin word for worthy, strong or powerful, and was a popular name between the second and eighth centuries AD, meaning there are several martyrs with the same name.
There are actually a dozen Valentines listed and there’s even a Pope Valentine. The actual day we celebrate is known as St Valentine of Rome to set him apart.
Sources: history.com, mirror, The Canterbury Tales
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