The Legend of Valentine's Day

For those of you who celebrated Valentine's day on the 14th, you may have been tempted to believe that the whole thing was a recent invention of the card publishing, jewelery and chocolate industries. Well, put your minds at rest. Valentine's day has been dedicated to lovers since ancient antiquity.

The Lover's day celebrated in antiquity was actually the 15th of February, and the Romans celebrated it as Lupercalia, the festive day of the gods Lupercus and Faunus, both responsible for the fertility of flocks, fields and people. On Lupercalia, goats and dogs were sacrificed on Palatine Hill in Rome and then young men would race on to the streets beneath the hill wielding goatskin thongs called Februa (same root as February). They would lash women gathered in the streets with their thongs. Februa lashing supposedly ensured fertility and easy child delivery.

The celebration of Lupercalia transformed and became more civilized as the Roman Empire expanded. When Rome conquered Gaul, a new tradition was developed of exchanging the first Valentine-like cards. Apparently, a container in which women had placed their names (possibly accompanied by love notes) was used in a lottery. Men drawing a women's name would either seek or were guaranteed (this detail seems obscured by time) a woman's "favors" whatever those might be.

The legendary naming of St. Valentine Day stems from real-life Christian martyrs of the Roman Empire known as Valentines. One of these is believed to have been a Roman priest and physician who was killed in the third century, during the persecutions of the Emperor Claudius II Gothicus - the Goth. A second Saint Valentine candidate was believed to be the bishop of Teni and was executed in Rome at around the same time. Their status as saints was assured through legends of harboring Christians from persecution, curing the blindness of a cell keeper's daughter and for conducting marriages while they were forbidden during times of war. It is most likely that this last legend and the traditions of Lupercalia ensured that St.Valentine became known as the patron saint of lovers.