History of Valentine's Day 

It is pretty difficult to avoid the images of Valentine’s Day when February rolls around and, quite honestly, who would want to? After all, Valentine’s Day is a holiday that revolves around the celebration of love and charity among friends, family and paramours. This certainly is a noble thing to celebrate and that is why Valentine’s Day remains one of the more popular holidays of the year. But popularity does not always translate into knowledge of the subject. That is to say, while most people know what Valentine’s Day represents and when it occurs they are very much in the dark about the origin and history of the holiday. Then again, how could you blame them for not being knowledgeable on the subject? It is not like there is much in the form of education regarding this holiday as there is with Christmas and Thanksgiving or, for that matter, Halloween. So, it is about time that a little light is shed on the interesting history of this holiday and that history will be detailed herein. 

First, the name “Valentine’s Day” is not entirely accurate as the full name is “Saint Valentine’s Day”, but even this is not an entirely accurate name. The reason for this is that “saint” is a singular term and the holiday actually is meant to honor 11 martyrs who all had the name Valentine. (This was a common name many hundreds of years ago, but it has long since ceased being popular in the western world for some inexplicable reason) As with all days celebrating saints, the origins of the holiday comes from ancient Rome which established the February date of romantic celebration and later the Catholic Church which had previously honored 11 martyrs prior to 1969 with several Valentine’s Days through the catholic calendar. In 1969, February 14th became the specific day of the year to honor two St. Valentines. (The holiday, however, was celebrated unofficially for years)The first was Valentine of Rome and the second was Valentine of Terni, both of whom were executed by the Romans. 

What is interesting regarding the celebration of this holiday is that neither of these saints is associated with romance in any way, shape or form. In fact, it is believed that the legendary Canterbury Tales author Geoffrey Chaucer was the first person who linked romance and the celebration of St. Valentine together in a throwaway line in one of his lesser known and forgotten works entitled Parliament of Fools in 1382. (The Roman celebration of romance and the celebration of St. Valentine were previously only loosely connected)  The connection between Valentine’s Day and romance would later continue when the “High Court of Love” ( a legal wing dealing with relationships) was established in France in the 15th century on (coincidentally) on of the celebrated Valentine’s Day of the time period. Over time, romance and relationships continued to be associated with Valentine’s Day even though the relationship had nothing to do with any of the saints directly. Case in point, Valentine’s Day was used to push the “gimmick” of love inspired greeting cards in the early 19th century and this helped perpetuate the celebration of the holiday.  When the Catholic Church officially established a singular Valentine’s Day on February 14th, the notion of it being a day to celebrate romance was established and since romance is a universal theme this became a day of celebration that transcended its catholic and Roman origins.