Actually at the end of the 5th century, Pope Gelasius 1 forbid the celebration of Lupercalia and is sometimes attributed with replacing it with St. Valentine’s Day, but the true origin of the holiday is vague at best. Valentine’s Day did not come to be celebrated as a day of romance until about the 14th century.
Although there were several Martyrs named Valentine, the day may have taken its name from a priest who was martyred about 270 CE by the emperor Claudius 11. According to a story, the priest signed a letter “from your Valentine” to his jailer’s daughter, whom he had befriended and, by some accounts, healed from blindness. Other accounts hold that it was St. Valentine of Terni, a Bishop, for whom the holiday was named, though it is possible the two saints were actually one person. Another common legend states that St. Valentine defied the emperor’s orders and secretly married couples to spare the husbands from war. It is for this reason that his feast day is associated with love.
As you know …
A formal message, or VALENTINES, appeared in the 1500s, and by the late 1700s commercially printed cards were being used. The first commercial valentines in the USA were printed in the mid-1800s. Valentines commonly depict Cupid, the Roman god of love, along with hearts, traditionally the seat of emotion. Because it was thought that the avian mating season begins in mid-February, birds also became a symbol of the day…
The day is popular in the US as well as in Britain, Canada, and Australia, and it is also celebrated in other countries, in south America, France and South Korea. In the Philippines it is the most common wedding anniversary, and mass weddings of hundreds of couples are not uncommon on that date. The holiday has expanded to expressions of affection among relatives and friends. Many schoolchildren exchange valentines with one another on this day. Traditional gifts include candy and flowers, particularly red roses, a symbol of beauty and love
