Valentine’s Day History Lesson
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Valentine’s Day is one of the most polarizing holidays: you either love it or you hate it. Those who hate it most universally say, “It’s just a holiday invented by greeting card companies.” Actually, that sentiment expressed by those very lonely people in February is really not true.
Valentine’s Day is named in honor of St. Valentine. A Roman legend created in the third century says Emperor Claudius II decided that his army would be stronger if soldiers did not have a wife and children waiting at home. The emperor banned young soldiers from marrying – it did not matter if they were already in love. Enter a priest, Father Valentine. He defied this order and continued to secretly marry young people. When the emperor discovered this defiant act, Father Valentine was thrown in jail, where he awaited execution.
During his time in jail, Valentine fell in love with the blind daughter of the jail warden. It is said that he performed a miracle and cured her blindness. When the love struck priest was taken away to be put to death, he left her a note saying, “From your Valentine.”
When did Valentine’s Day start to be celebrated in honor of this romantic saint? Well, in Ancient Rome there was a festival of fertility called Lupercalia. This day usually fell on February 15th. Men, through a lottery system, would get the name of a woman who would become their “partner” for the year. But, not liking the celebration of a pagan holiday, Pope Gelasius I re-branded it a Christian festival on February 14th. Wanting a more appropriate saint for the festival, Saint Valentine was selected for his romantic acts.
However, St. Valentine’s Day was not connected to any connation of love until the 14th century. England’s King Richard II was engaged to marry Anne of Bohemia in 1381. The father of British Literature, Geoffrey Chaucer, decided to compose a poem in the royal couple’s honor.
In “The Parliament of Fowls” Chaucer uses imagery of birds in mating season. Then it was traditional in poetry to associate such a special occasion with a feast day; Chaucer chose St. Valentine’s Day: “For this was on St. Valentine's Day, /
When every fowl cometh there to choose his mate.” This poem was the first time love was truly associated with the holiday.
In the 1700s, it became popular in England to give gifts and send cards on the day. It spread to the American colonies, where homemade cards were made and then distributed much like we did in elementary school. However, in 1850, Esther A. Howland started to mass produce Valentine’s Day cards, making it easy for people to buy them instead of constructing a card by hand.
Now, as we all know, greeting card companies have become a staple of the holiday. According to the Greeting Card association, 25% of the cards they sell in a year are Valentine’s Day cards.
The misguided belief that greeting card companies invented the holiday is not true. The holiday still stands for what it’s always stood for: love. If anything, the greeting card companies have hijacked Valentine’s Day.
