As February 14th comes closer by the day, that also means that Valentine’s Day is close too.
This tradition about love, being with loved ones, and being able to give your loved ones things on a special day of the year that celebrates one that one thing, love.
However, what most don’t know is the history behind why we celebrate Valentine’s Day.
Originally Valentine’s Day was a Roman holiday celebrated for fertility taking place on Feb. 13-15, going back as far as the sixth century B.C. Before it turned into a celebration about romance, it was filled with animal sacrifice and warding off evil curses. Another part of the history behind the traditions of Valentine’s Day is St. Valentine himself. Saint Valentine was said to be a Roman priest during the 3rd Century A.D. who would secretly marry Christian couples, leading soon to his imprisonment from the orders of the Roman Emperor Claudius ll. During his imprisonment Saint Valentine would write love letters to the jailer’s blind daughter who he was supposedly in love with and on the eve of his execution, February 14. He wrote her a farewell letter signing it “From your Valentine.”
Valentine was later declared a Saint by the Catholic Church well after his death when he was martyred on Feb. 14 — Valentine’s Day. This later became celebrated closer to the late fifth century A.D., when Pope Gelasius I replaced Lupercalius with a day in honor of the Saint’s martyrdom.
This was only the start of the holiday, over the years Valentine’s day changed to what it is today which celebrates our loved ones and love in general. But when you’re writing your letter to your sweetheart don’t forget the man who wrote to the girl he loved the day before his execution and signed it “From your Valentine.”
