Valentine’s Day is coming around the corner and it is time to impress your date with a little cupid knowledge. Valentine’s Day is a commercial holiday but it wasn’t always this way. But now that it is, it is a great way to show someone just how much you care. If you met on a free dating site , this might just be the day to take your relationship to the next level. February is a month full of love and joy and on February 14th we celebrate Valentine’s Day.
Valentine’s Day and Lupercalia
Valentine’s Day derives from traditions from both Christianity and the Romans. Many link Valentine’s Day directly to the Roman holiday of Lupercalia. But it’s not exactly what you may be expecting. This festival was to keep wolves away from the crops that the Romans used for trade and survival. Interestingly enough, the men of these festivals would hit the women in an attempt to make them more fertile linking Valentines Day with the belief in love and fertility during the Lupercalia festival. This festival was traditionally held on the 15th of February. On the 14th, the women would search for a man to take them to the festival the following day which can be linked greatly to the holiday we now follow.
St. Valentine
Yes, Valentine’s Day is named after the great Saint Valentine. But there may have been more than one. Of the different St. Valentines there are two that stick out who sum up Valentine’s Day quite nicely. One story goes, that the Roman Emperor Claudius II banned his soldiers from getting married as this would be a distraction to his forces. Valentine, a priest, could not let two people in love miss out on such an occasion so he would secretly marry these couples. On the 14th of February, he was beheaded for disobeying the laws of the emperor.
The other story associated with Valentine’s Day is that of a man named Valentine who was imprisoned for his religious defiance but everyone, especially children, loved this man. They would send him messages from behind the prison walls. Like nowadays, sending letters and other messages are associated with Valentine’s Day.
The Popularization of Valentine’s Day
By the 1800s there were numerous exchanging of Valentine’s Day letters which were handmade. Esther A. Howland, begin to mass produce Valentine’s Day cards in the United States for this occasion. They became an instant success and lead to the popularization of V Day. From there, we have all of the flowers and chocolate gifts that have become customary to give on Valentine’s Day.