The History Of Valentine’s Day

Flowers, chocolate, cards and lots of them….all part of celebrating Valentine’s Day, the most romantic day of the year say some. But where did it all come from? Valentine’s Day as we know it today has evolved from Roman, Christian and English traditions. Ancient Romans celebrated the festival of Lupercalia on February 15 as protection from wolves. Part of the celebration was for young men to dip strips of animal hide in wolf blood and run around gently striking women with the blood-dipped strips. Women welcomed this attention as it was believed to make them more fertile.

After the Romans conquered Britain, many Roman festivals were adopted. Many writers believe Lupercalia and Valentine’s Day were linked because of the similar dates and connection to fertility.

The lottery was also part of the Lupercalia tradition. For this, children of the village would write down the names on all single women on slips and place them in a jar. Then all the young men would each draw a slip from the jar and would be paired with that woman for the coming year. Marriages often arose from this. One account of Valentine’s Day tells of groups of friends in the 1700s gathering to draw names. Men would wear the names of their valentines on their sleeve for several days. This practice could be the origin of the phrase “wearing your heart on your sleeve.”

An arrow from the son of the winged child Cupid, a classic image of Valentine’s Day, is said to be able to make any mortal fall in love. Cupid dates back to ancient times. In Greek mythology, he is known as Eros, son of Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty. In ancient Roman lore, Cupid is son of Venus, goddess of love. The Romans also gave us cinnamon, the flavour in those little red candy hearts, as part of Valentine’s Day. They wore cinnamon perfume and believed cinnamon-spiced food would turn one’s thoughts to love. Originally from Sri Lanka, Cinnamon is the inner bark of a tropical evergreen tree and is harvested during the rainy season when the bark is soft. Today it is sold in sticks or ground powder. 

 Valentine’s Day became a popular celebration in Britain by the 1600s and Americans likely began exchanging hand-made cards in the early 1700s. By the eighteenth century it was common for friends and lovers of all social classes to exchange small tokens of affection such as flowers or hand written notes. As printing methods improved, preprinted cards began to replace hand written notes, making it easier for people to express themselves at a time when direct expression of one’s true feelings was not encouraged. The 1840s saw the first mass-produced Valentine cards in America. Reduced postage rates also contributed to the increased popularity of sending cards. Today, Valentine’s Day is celebrated across North America, the United Kingdom, France and Australia and it’s estimated one billion cards are sent each year.

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