Valentine's day is a celebration that occurs in many countries in the world. It takes place on February 14th and involves the exchange of gifts, flowers, and candies between loved ones. However, have you ever wondered how the tradition started, and who started it? Keep reading to learn more about Valentine's Day!
How it Started
February has been celebrated as the month of romance for a long time, especially in ancient Roman and Christian tradition. The Christians and Romans used to celebrate St. Valentine's day related to the Catholic Church.
One story says that a priest named Valentine was serving in third Century Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men were better soldiers than married soldiers, he decided to make it illegal for soldiers to get married. However, Valentine decided to defy this rule and performed marriages in secret for lovers. When Emperor Claudius found out, Valentine was ordered to be put to death.
Another story suggests that Valentine was put to death for helping Christians escape the harsh, Roman prisons, where they were tortured.
Some states that Valentine was actually the imprisoned one, sending the first 'valentine' greeting himself to a girl he fell in love with, who was the jailor's daughter who visited him. Before he died, the legend says that he signed the letter "From your Valentine", which is an expression that is still widely used today.
Others claim that the origin of Valentine's day was related to the pagan celebration of Lupercalia, a fertility festival. They claim that the Christian church decided to place St. Valentine's day in the middle of February to Christianize this celebration. The festival often started with sacrificing a goat and a dog. The goat's hide was then slapped on women and crop fields, which they believed made them more fertile, as weird as it sounds. Then, the women in the city would place their names into a big urn, and the city's bachelors would each choose a name, and be paired with a woman. This often resulted in marriage. Lupercalia was later deemed un-Christian and was replaced with St. Valentine's day at the end of the 5th century, by Pope Gelasius.
While the true origin of Valentine's day is unclear, all the legends suggest that Valentine was romantic and heroic.
Who is Cupid?
Cupid is often referred to as a symbol of Valentine's day, shooting arrows at lovers. Cupid has his roots in Greek mythology as the Greek god of love, Eros. He is believed to be the son of either Nyx and Erebus, Aphrodite and Ares, Aphrodite and Zeus, or Iris and Zephyrus. According to Archaic Greek poets, Eros played with the emotions of men and Greek gods, using arrows to incite love, and leaden arrows to show aversion. However, in the Hellenistic period, he was then portrayed as a mischievous, chubby child.
Image from: https://www.wired.com/2013/02/real-life-cupid/
The History of Valentine's Day Gifts
By the mid-18th century, it became common for friends and lovers of all social classes to exchange small gifts of affection or handwritten notes, and by the 1900s, printed cards started to take over, thanks to an advance in technology. But have you ever wondered why chocolate is such a popular gift around Valentine's Day? It all started when a man named Richard Cadbury, the owner of a British chocolate company created a certain type of chocolate, using excess cocoa butter, and decided to sell it in fancy decorated boxes that he had designed himself. These then evolved into heart-shaped boxes, that were sold around Valentine's Day. These boxes were also meant to be used again as storage after all the chocolate had been eaten. However, these Victorian-era boxes halted production around the time of World War II when sugar was rationed and celebrations of Valentine's day were scaled down.
Written by Overclocked RGB
The Anonymous Helpers (TAH)