History of Valentine’s Day
Valentine’s Day seems to be just a holiday created by Hallmark but there is actual historical basis to this holiday. The word Valentine comes from at least two celebrated saints, Valentine or Valentinus. There are two martyrs whose festival falls on February 14th. One of these men was a bishop and the other a priest. Both lived at the same time and died on the same day. They were both buried on the Via Flaminia at different distances to Rome. Many historians believe that the holiday comes from the day in Spring when birds began their mating but there is another view held.
In Rome there was a festival held in February, Lupercalia, held in honor of a god named Lupercus. Lupercus was worshiped to protect the shepherds and their flocks from hordes of wolves. Lupercus comes from the Latin word, lupus, a wolf. One of the traditions on the day of this festival was the placing of young women’s names in a box to be drawn by young men. The young man would then accept the young women he drew from the box as his lady love.
The tradition changed over the years and during Christian times priests would put the names of saints and martyrs into the boxes. The name drawn from the box was called one’s valentine and the holy life of that person was to be imitated throughout the year. At one point in England, there was a custom for people to call out “Good morning, ‘tis St. Valentine’s Day”, and the one who succeeded in saying this first expected to receive a present from the one whom it was said to.
Paper valentines have been around since the 1500’s but it wasn’t until an American commercialized upon the holiday in the 1840’s. Esther A. Holland sold $5,000 worth of commercial valentines in the first year, which was a great deal of money at the time.