Description: Ever wanted to know why we pair up on the 14th day of February every year and celebrate the magic of romantic love? This brief history of Valentine’s Day uncovers some of the mysteries and legends surrounding the holiday…
Did you know that cupid was originally a handsome sex-symbol, irresistible to Gods and mortals alike?
Valentine’s Day, or ‘Saint Valentine’s Day’ has an obscure and much contested history It combines many traditional rituals and legends to form what it has become today: a colourful, chocolate-filled celebration of romantic love.
So who was this Saint Valentine and why has he had such an impact on our calendar? In the Catholic Church there are reportedly at least three saints christened ‘Valentine’ or similar. The most fascinating of these and a brilliant anecdote to tell whilst dating is as follows…
They say that Valentine was a priest, serving under Emperor Claudius II in Rome’s third century. Claudius decided that love was a distraction which damaged the performance of his soldiers and promptly outlawed marriage completely. Valentine, very much opposed to this, continued to marry couples in secret, keeping the love alive. Unfortunately, he was caught in the act and sentenced to death, scheduled for February 14th. This date was then dedicated to his memory and the kind acts that he had undertaken.
Some embellish this story further and claim that Valentine himself fell in love, whilst in jail, with the jailer’s daughter. Before his death he was said to have written her a last love letter, signing it ‘From your Valentine…’ a phrase which has endured to this day.
Whilst mysterious Valentine could therefore be said to be where the date for the holiday originates, others source its position in mid-February as taken from the Pagan ‘Lupercalia’ festival . February, being the beginning of spring, was celebrated by this ritualistic festival of purification and fertility.
Animals would be sacrificed and women whipped with the hides of these animals, to ensure their loyalty and fertility for the coming year. This festival was stolen by the Christian Church, but necessarily altered to be simply a day to celebrate love and fertility.
February 14th has also been said to coincide with the time when birds begin their mating season, adding to the image of this time of year as perfect for finding love .
And the other mysterious figure who hovers around Valentine’s Day? The cherub Cupid has almost as many different origins as Saint Valentine and is equally shrouded in mystery. The Ancient Greeks knew him as Eros which is where the word erotic comes from, and instead of an innocent child, he took the form of a young, handsome man, irresistible to all. He had a bow and arrow, with gold-tipped arrows to inflict love and lead-tipped ones to inflict hate. We generally ignore the more sinister lead arrows nowadays!
The Romans were the first to actually name him ‘Cupid’ and it was Renaissance artists who first painted him in child form, which is how he is most widely represented today. He has also appeared across the centuries, and often in Shakespeare, as a symbol for the wonderful unpredictability of love, frequently depicted wearing a blindfold and flying blindly across the world firing arrows to and fro.
Around 1 billion cards are now sent out on Saint Valentine’s Day, a tribute to the noble priest, to the blind matchmaker, to fertility and most importantly, to love. It is a holiday that is centuries old and one that will endure for many years to come. Happy Valentine’s Day!
So, the holiday is an amalgamation of different celebrations and legends, all coming together to make Valentine’s Day what it is today.
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