For some, today is the worst day of the year. Opposers to this romantic holiday open their social media accounts just to be electronically bombarded with photos and collages of couples, lovers, and romantic gestures. Gross.
On the other hand, some think this is one of the best days of the year. They are able to brag to the world about how amazing their significant other is without people thinking they are annoying or crazy, and they get to show their lover how much they mean to them by buying them candy, a stuffed animal, and a cliche card from CVS. Great.
What is relatively unknown, however, is how this holiday came to be what it is now. And, frankly, its history is not as romantic or charming as one may think.
Up until 400 AD, an annual Roman festival called Lupercalia took place on February 15. This wasn’t an ordinary festival, however, it was one that celebrated and was also thought to enhance fertility. Goats and dogs were viewed as sacred animals during the time, and at Lupercalia, they were stripped of their hide, which was then soaked with blood and used in a way that was later deemed un-Christian.
Women attendees of the festival were beaten with the hide because it was thought to make them “more fertile” in the coming year. In simpler terms, if they withstood a beating from thick, blood-soaked meat, they would be gifted with children.
Eventually, as Lupercalia was abolished, February was still viewed as the month of fertility, which later transformed into the month of romance. In addition, according to his
tory.com, the Middle Ages associated February 14 with being the beginning of mating season for birds. This adds to the romantic connotation of the second month of the new year.
At the end of the fifth century, February was dubbed Valentine’s Day; however, the exact reasoning for this is unknown. What is clear is that there have been two notable Roman priests named Valentine, both of which conducted secret marriages and were executed on February 14. The exact reasoning behind the naming of this holiday remains a mystery.
It wasn’t until the fifteenth century, however, that modern Valentine’s Day activities began to sprout. As history.com states, “The oldest known valentine still in existence today was a poem written in 1415 by Charles, Duke of Orleans, to his wife while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London following his capture at the Battle of Agincourt."
A tradition of fertility celebration transformed into a tradition of domestic celebration. In 1913, Hallmark began selling and creating Valentine’s Day cards, and since then, it has stuck. Though the holiday now consists of lovey-dovey romance, be thankful for what it evolved into, and be thankful you aren’t walking around campus and seeing your female friends getting pelted with dead animals.