Story 36

Why We Celebrate February 14

Every year on February 14th we collectively bestow upon our loved ones mass quantities of flowers, chocolate confections, and other gifts of passion. There are so many greeting cards exchanged in the name of love on this day that you can almost hear local forests groan. So why is it we celebrate Valentine's Day? St. Valentine, a Roman Priest who was martyred and executed on February 14, 269 A.D

The history of Valentine's Day is actually a bit of a mystery but there are a few facts and myths that have been handed down over the years. For starters, Saint Valentine is associated with the holiday and created by the Catholic Church. The church currently recognizes at least 2 different saints with the name of Valentine, one of whom was actually was buried after his death ON February 14th. From the stand point of history, they are all recognized as having been martyred for various reasons.

Stories suggest that the priest Valentine, was executed on Feb. 14th about the year 270 AD, for performing secret marriage ceremonies for soldiers in opposition of Claudius II (aka Claudius the Cruel) who prohibited marriage. The Roman Empire’s golden era was coming to an end and civil unrest required the Romans to shield itself from its aggressors. Because the emperor felt that married men were emotionally attached to their families and thus were less effective soldiers and less likely to enlist, Claudius the Cruel issued an edict that forbade soldiers from marrying and enlisted single men ensure his armies were staffed with quality soldiers.

Others say St. Valentine was responsible for sending the first "valentine" himself when he sent a note to a girl he had fallen in love and signed it "from your Valentine". Yet others say he was killed for helping Christians escape from Roman prisons.

Why do we celebrate it on February 14th? The next theory is that Valentine's Day was manufactured in order to displace the pagan holiday Feast of Lupercalia, an honor to the Goddess Juno - the Goddess of women and marriage. During the festival, women would write billets (love letters) and leave them for men to draw – lottery style. These women would then be their partner for the duration of the festival. But Pope Gelasius wanted to change this and move away from pagan ceremonies and reversed the lottery by having men and women draw names of saints they would emulate and one of those saints was St. Valentine. Obviously the men were disappointed and continued to practice of writing billets, handing to women they sought affections from. St. Valentine’s name was included in those notes to not offend the Pope.

Regardless of what you elect to believe, what we do know is this - February 14th has become a day for celebrating your love for friends and family, fertility and love and we at Valentine.com cannot find anything wrong with that!