It is that hearty kind of holiday again. It is loved by some and loathed by others.
Valentine’s Day. The cards, the candies, the flowers. All of this to say I love you? Oh, just tell the person and get it over with.
Anyway. How did this whole thing start? Well. Valentine’s Day didn’t begin with greeting cards. It began a long, long time before Hallmark hit the scene. Its roots are older and a little strange if you ask me.
It seems like we always go back to the ancient Romans. And here we are again. Ancient Romans celebrated a mid-February festival called Lupercalia. It was a fertility rite meant to usher in Spring.
The festival involved rituals, sacrifices, and a lot of symbolic hope. That hope was for renewal and abundance. The celebration was a little bit about love. Not the mushy Valentine kind. Instead, the Romans were celebrating what was practical. Their agricultural. The whole thing was about survival.
So that was the start of things on our journey toward Valentine’s Day.
Next, all those saints came marching in.
Yes indeed. The saints came on the scene. There were several early Christian martyrs named Valentine. But one legend stands out.
According to tradition, St. Valentine was a priest in third-century Rome who secretly performed marriages for young couples when Emperor Claudius II banned them. The emperor believed unmarried men made better soldiers. Valentine disagreed. So the guy would marry couples on the sly.
This might have worked out for all those married couples, but it didn’t turn out too great for Valentine. The poor guy was imprisoned and eventually executed. Not so romantic. They cut off his head on February 14.
The holiday didn’t become romantic until much later.
During the Middle Ages, poets like Geoffrey Chaucer wrote about it. These writings all helped link February 14 with courtly love. Those poets wrote about things like birds choosing their mates on St. Valentine’s Day. Love Birds, I suppose.
By the 18th and 19th centuries, handwritten love notes became common. And wouldn’t you know it? Wherever humans tread, they look for a buck to be made. That’s right. As such, the Industrial Revolution turned affection into an industry. They came up with printed Valentine cards, and this novelty spread quickly through England and the United States. What began as myth and martyrdom evolved into lace, ink, and postage stamps.
Today’s Valentine’s Day is a whole big thing. But underneath it has a lot of history. Pagan roots. Religious sacrifice. Poetry. Commerce. It’s a layered holiday when we look at it.
At its core, though, Valentine’s Day has always been about connection.
In its meaning, it is about choosing love.
May we always choose love in all the things we do.
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“Love is an act of endless forgiveness.” — Peter Ustinov
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“Where there is love there is life.” — Mahatma Gandhi
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“Love is the only gold.” — Alfred Lord Tennyson“
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