Valentine’s Day, or St. Valentine’s Day, is celebrated across the world on February 14. The day is dedicated to love and sees couples exchange gifts. Despite its status as one of the most over-commercialised events in the world, very few know about Valentine’s Day's historical Roman origins or how it grew to be so popular.

History

While Valentine’s Day gets its name from the death of two Christian saints, both named Valentine, who died in the 3rd and 4th century AD, the festival has its origins in the much older Roman festival of Lupercalia. Celebrated on February 15, Lupercalia was a fertility ritual though its origins are obscured.

The festival would begin with the sacrifice of a goat and a dog, the blood from whom would be used to anoint two specially chosen revellers. These Luperci would then run through the streets, hitting young naked women with the skin of the sacrificed animals. The women whipped in such a manner were thought to have been made more fertile. The festival also saw young unmarried men and women being paired together by lottery for coupling.

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After Rome embraced Christianity in the 4th century, Valentine’s Day still remained popular in the Roman Empire. In the 5th century, Pope Gelasius I finally outlawed the festival and then established St. Valentine’s Day, which would be celebrated on February 14. It is thought that this connection with the fertility festival of Lupercalia would lead to St. Valentine’s Day being associated with love and romance.

How did it become popular?

It was not until the 15th century or during the Renaissance that Valentine's messages started becoming more common. Though English poet Geoffrey Chaucer was the first to record the day as a romantic celebration in one of his works in 1375. English playwright William Shakespeare would also mention the day in plays like ‘Hamlet’. The idea of ‘courtly love’ during the time also helped propagate Valentine’s Day’s popularity.

It is through the work of writers and poets that the day began gaining popularity in Victorian England, which later spread to the US and the European mainland. Handmade paper cards, which were a popular feature of the day, slowly became mass produced and the holiday became more and more commercialised over the next century.

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Significance

Today, Valentine’s Day is a significant cultural celebration of romance with very few of the religious sentiments previously associated with the day prevalent any longer. Valentine’s Day is also one of the biggest events in terms of commercial activity alongside other major festivals like Christmas and New Year’s. Couples buy gifts, chocolates and special greeting cards, and often eat out to make it a time to remember.

(Edited by : Priyanka Deshpande)

First Published:Feb 14, 2023 6:38 AM IST