The Origins of Valentine’s Day

It is likely that Valentine’s Day, like many modern holidays, began as a pagan tradition. The middle of February is when Valentine may have died, so the holiday was to commemorate his death, which some say occurred in 270 CE. In 496, CE Pope Gelasius I and the Catholic Church attempted to “Christianize” the pagan holiday Lupercalia, a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, as well as to the Roman founders Romulus and Remus. The feast of St. Valentine was thus held on February 14. This was dedicated to the Saint Valentine of Rome who was martyred exactly 200 years earlier. 

Image: The Lupercalian Festival in Rome (ca. 1578–1610), drawing by Adam Elsheimer, showing the Luperci dressed as dogs and goats, with Cupid and personifications of fertility. Public Domain.

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The Story of Valentine's Day

The Origins of Valentine’s Day

Lupercalia was nothing like our modern Valentine’s Day. Tradition says that members of the Luperci, an order of Roman priests, gathered 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 or lupa. A goat for fertility and a dog for purification were sacrificed. (not so Christian, but performed by priests) The goat hide was drenched in the sacrificial blood and slapped on women and fields. Women lined up for this, as they hoped it would make them fertile. According to legend and written by ancient writer Plutarch, later in the day the semi-naked, drunk men and women had names placed in urns and as they were drawn by lottery men and women would be matched for the festival. (and by some accounts for the entire year) Many of these pairings ended in marriage. In the 5th Century, the Normans celebrated Galatin's Day. Galatin meant "lover of women” so this similar sounding festival probably led to more confusion about the celebration and origins of the holiday as we know it now. 

Did you know? People call on St. Valentine for help with many things such as beekeeping and epilepsy, as well as the plague, fainting and traveling.

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The Story of Valentine's Day

The Festival of Lupercalia in England & France

Lupercalia was a popular celebration as long as 150 years after Christianity was legalized in Rome. Pope Gelasius outlawed Lupercalia in the 5th Century, CE, and declared February 14 as St. Valentine’s Day in the hopes to Christianize the tradition, though it wasn’t until later that it was firmly associated with love. The French and English believed that February 14 was the beginning of birds’ mating season, hence the association. English poet Geoffrey Chaucer was the first to record St. Valentine’s Day as a day of romantic celebration in his 1375 poem “Parliament of Foules”. He wrote, “For this was sent on Seynt Valentyne’s day / Whan every foul cometh ther to choose his mate.” Does this mean Chaucer invented St. Valentine’s Day? Possibly. Historians believe this poem was the real catalyst for Valentine’s Day’s link to love and that the legends of Saint Valentine are really just myth. Nevertheless, by the 1400s nobles were writing “valentine” poems to their sweethearts and it seems that England is where the more modern origins of Valentine’s Day begins. Even William Shakespeare’s lovestruck Ophelia spoke of herself as ‘Hamlet’s Valentine’.

Did you know? Another pagan holiday that became a Christian one was Saturnalia, what we now call Christmas.

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The Story of Valentine's Day

The Festival of Lupercalia in England & France

Image: Geoffrey Chaucer by Thomas Hoccleve (1412). Public Domain.

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The Story of Valentine's Day

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The First Valentines

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While written valentines didn’t appear until the 1400s, people did exchange valentine greetings throughout the Middle Ages. The oldest known valentine still in existence today was a poem written in 1415 by Charles, Duke of Orleans, to his wife while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London following his capture at the Battle of Agincourt. (history.com) 

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Image: An early hand-made puzzle purse valentine, from c1790. Public Domain.

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The Story of Valentine's Day

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In Great Britain in the 17th Century, Valentine’s Day was popularly celebrated. By the middle of the 18th Century, it was common practice for sweethearts to exchange small gifts and messages of affection, in places such as France, Australia, Canada, the United States and even Mexico. As printing technology improved in the 19th Century printed cards were exchanged. At the time postage was cheaper, thus the growth in popularity of the practice. It should be noted that at the time people were discouraged from showing emotions so cards were an alternative way to express one’s feelings for another.

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Where did Cupid come from?

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Valentine’s day in the modern sense can’t be separated from the winged bow and arrow-holding Cupid. But this wasn’t always the case. In classical mythology, Cupid (Latin Cupīdō, meaning "desire") is the god of desire, erotic love, attraction and affection. 

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The Story of Valentine's Day

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The earliest Cupid was known to the Greeks as Eros, the god of love. The first mention of Eros was in 700 BCE by Hesiod. (the Romans later adopted Cupid into their own number of gods - a god who embodied desire) Eros would carry a quiver with golden arrows to shoot at gods and mortals alike to essentially play with their emotions. In one ancient Greek myth later retold by Roman authors, “Cupid (Eros) shot a golden arrow at Apollo, who fell madly in love with the nymph Daphne, but then launched a leaden arrow at Daphne so she would be repulsed by him.” (history.com) 

Where did Cupid come from?

Cupid became more common in Roman art from the time of Augustus, the first Roman emperor during the transition from BCE to CE, but this was not the Cupid of St. Valentine’s Day. Eventually, Cupid was portrayed as a more playful character and less a mischief-maker. Cupid was popular in the Middle Ages and became more popular throughout the Renaissance. This image stuck over time and we have the chubby child-like Cupid. 

Image: Eros c.470-450 BCE, The Louvre. Wikimedia Commons. Public Domain.

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The Story of Valentine's Day

Commercial Valentine's Day Cards

Esther A. Howland has been given the title “Mother of the Valentine”. Americans probably began exchanging hand-made valentines in the early 1700s but it was in the 1840s that Howland began selling the first mass-produced valentines in America. She made elaborate cards with lace and other materials. In America, sending cards actually gained popularity during the Revolutionary War, when soldiers would send letters to their sweethearts. In 1913, Hallmark Cards of Kansas City, Mo., began mass producing valentines. 

Image: Valentine greeting card dated 1909. Wikimedia Commons. Public Domain.

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The Story of Valentine's Day

Religious Pilgrimages

It’s said that after Valentine was beheaded, the body was spirited away and buried somewhere along the ancient highway called the Via Flaminia, with a chapel eventually being built over the spot. Although it was built (perhaps as early as the 4th Century), it is likely named after the wealthy patron who paid for it, named - you guessed it - Valentine. The skull of St. Valentine (of Terni) is on display in the Basilica of Santa Maria in Cosmedin, Rome. In the early 1800s, the excavation of a catacomb near Rome had skeletal remains and other relics now associated with St. Valentine. 

Image: A drawing depicts the death of St. Valentine - one of them, anyway. The Romans executed two men by that name on Feb. 14 of different years in the 3rd century A.D. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images). Public Domain.

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The Story of Valentine's Day

Religious Pilgrimages

Image: The tomb of Saint Valentine is in the Basilica di San Valentino in Terni. Wikimedia Commons. Public Domain.

Religious tourists and pilgrims visit the burials of both Valentines to pray for cures to illnesses or to be closer to God. When the Roman Empire slowly collapsed, many bishops were eager to claim “relics” of the saints to display in their parishes. Due to the record-keeping of saints’ bodies as well as the deeds and miracles attributed to them it is nearly impossible to differentiate the remains of many saints with that of some random person. Where the remains of real saints may have existed the record-keeping was so poor we often don’t know what remains belong to what saint. 

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The Story of Valentine's Day

Religious Relics

Image: Relics of St. Valentine of Terni at the basilica of Saint Mary in Cosmedin. Dnalor 01 (Own work) , CC BY-SA

The remains of one of the Saint Valentines rests in St Anton's Church, Madrid, where they have reportedly been since the late 1700s. In keeping with tradition, pieces of the saint’s body have been distributed to reliquaries around the world. Bits of St. Valentine’s skeleton can be found on display in Poland, the Czech Republic, Greece, Ireland, Scotland, England and France. It can be difficult to prove that any of the bits of Saint Valentine are from the saint, but these places of worship attract pilgrims nonetheless. 

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The Story of Valentine's Day