The Origin and History of Valentine’s Day
With Valentine’s Day a ten days away, many people are well into their preparations for this special event. Whether you’ve got everything under control or haven’t even started thinking about what you’ll do to celebrate this love-focused day, we’ll help you find ways and ideas to show those you love just how much you care. It only seems fitting then that the first post in this Valentine’s Day blog focuses on the origin and history of Valentine’s Day and how past traditions and events have formulated what we do on February 14th today.
The origins of Valentine’s Day are still debated, and experts have several different theories as to why we adopted this day of love, such as:
- It was created as a Christian version of the Pagan Lupercalia festival;
- There was a Christian man beloved by many children who refused to worship the Roman gods of the time and was incarcerated for taking a stance. He subsequently received Valentine’s from his adoring fans, who threw the "love notes" at his jail cell; or
- A priest (who later became a saint) performed marriages when the practice was outlawed because the governing forces at the time through families were too much of a distraction for men at war.
Yet although its roots stem from third century lore, February 14th wasn’t designated a holiday until Pope Gelasius declared it so somewhere around 498 A.D. And so it remains.
Another of modern day representation of Valentine’s Day however - Cupid - has a bit less confusion attached to why we use him as a symbol of love. Better known as Eros, Cupid is a god in Roman mythology. He was the son of Aphrodite (where the word aphrodisiac comes from) and Hermes. Unfortunately, Cupid fell in love with a mortal by the name of Psyche, which ended in disaster.
Related Content: Romance Through the Ages
