Valentine's Day Folklore 

Valentine’s Day folklore is some of the more unique folklore ever recorded because it is quite unique in its emphasis. While it is not devoid of humor or adventure or moral lessons as is common in most folklore, Valentine’s Day adds the additional sphere of centering on tales of love and romance. Now, this is not to say love  or romance are not found in other examples of myth and folklore (The Iliad and the Odyssey, for example, contain significant aspects of romantic tales within their stories) With Valentine’s Day tales, however, romance does represent the central focus of the tales and that is somewhat unique and bears some examination. 

To a great extent, the folklore surrounding Valentine’s Day is universal in origin. That is to say that the folklore associated with this holiday is not one that derives from a particular origin or tradition. Instead, it is an amalgamation of various histories and traditions that have fused together over time as various cultures mixed. This was obvious even during the days when St. Valentine actually lived as he was born in the Roman Empire and many of the Christian traditions associated with Valentine ’s Day are actually fused side by side with traditions that originated with the Romans. (Incidentally, the Romans themselves borrowed some of these traditions from other cultures that they conquered) When looking at the origins and the folklore of the early origins of Valentine’s Day it becomes obvious that a fusion of one society’s folklore occurred. 

For example, Roman folklore associated with Valentine’s Day centers on the Feast of Lupercelia which was designed to honor the gods so as to protect the village from wolves. Part of the way to ward off the wolves was to celebrate love and this feast was often used for matchmaking. The day of the year that this was February 15th which is obviously very close to the February 14th day of celebration for Valentine’s Day and this brings us to a tale about St. Valentine. Legend has it that the Roman Emperor had banned marriage because he felt unmarried soldiers fought best. Now, St. Valentine thought this to be absurd and married the soldiers anyway. For his troubles he was imprisoned and executed and later became known as the patron saint of couples and romance. It would seem that over time as Rome became more and more Christianized, the celebration of Valentine as a figurehead symbol of romance replaced what was originally a celebration to Roman gods.