It has always been a debate as to why Valentine's Day is a real holiday or not. Everyone knows it as the time of year where love is the main topic. Cupids are flying around shooting their arrows, we're giving gifts to significant others and, most are eating their heart's desire of chocolate. But what actually is Valentine's Day? What exactly are we celebrating?
February has always been seen as the month of love since ancient Roman times. Around the fifth century, between February 13th and 15th, there was a pagan festival that used to be known as Lupercalia. During this festival, there would be animal sacrifices and the whipping of women with the animal skin for fertility. But, in order to Christianize the holiday, the pope in that time dubbed February 14th as St. Valentine's Day.
That leads to the question: Who was St. Valentine?
There were, apparently, several different St. Valentines. Although there were different ones, the one that everyone seems to know about is the "rebel" St. Valentine. This "rebel" was a Roman priest who performed weddings to soldiers. This occurred during the third century, which was when Claudius II was emperor. Claudius had banned marriage among the soldiers in his army so that they could focus on fighting in the war instead of worrying about the families they were leaving behind. St. Valentine, however, didn't think that banning marriage was the right thing to do. So he continued to marry the soldiers and their wives in secret. When Valentine got caught, Claudius II sentenced him to death. His death was a three-part execution which included a beating, a stoning and eventually decapitation in 269 AD.
It's said that while in jail, St. Valentine had fallen in love with a girl. One legend says that it was with his jailer's daughter, and another says it was with a girl who he helped heal her of her blindness. Regardless of who the girl was, Valentine had given her a note on the day of his execution, February 14th. He signed it with "from your Valentine," which is how we adopted the tradition of referring to our loved ones as "Valentines."
It wasn't until the 1300s when Valentine's Day became an official observation for a day of love, and it wasn't until the 1500s when Valentine's Day cards starting turning up. In Great Britain during the 17th century, it had become a popular tradition to give each other these kinds of cards in letters. The United States had eventually caught onto the tradition, and in the 1840s, factories emerged producing holiday cards, which helped the push for Valentine's Day to become even bigger than what it already was.
So, Valentine's Day is real. It's the day of remembrance for the martyr St. Valentine, who died for his belief in love. And because of what he believed in, we now have the day of love.
