How Did Saint Valentine's Day Develop

Saint Valentine as depicted by Bassano.

Saint Valentine's Day is widely celebrated in the Western world as a day of love and romantic relationships. While this tradition does go far back and has connections to early Christian traditions, there are also more complex links with pre-Christian holidays that were likely changed or modified into Saint Valentine's Day traditions.

Early History

The story of Saint Valentine directly links to one, or several early saints called Valentine (Figure 1). Many traditions have developed around this holiday, and most likely, multiple traditions were integrated as original records were lost. One of those traditions states that Valentines was a priest in Rome martyred for defying Claudius II, who had decreed his soldiers would not marry. He may have tried to marry soldiers in secret, and when the emperor found out, he had him executed. The heart may have symbolized love between the pair, which could have become a love symbol.

Other scholars, however, dispute that an emperor would have ever done such an edict. Another story states Valentine tried to help Christians escape, and he was imprisoned after he was caught. He eventually may have fallen in love with his jailor's daughter, and he sent the first "valentine" to her. He may have greeted her by saying, "Your Valentine," which uses valentine as part of the Valentine Day greeting may have originated. Another idea is that Valentine of Terni, a Christian bishop, was martyred in 273 during persecutions.

There is also a legend that he married a young pagan soldier to a young Christian woman. On hearing his wife was dying, the soldier converted to Christianity to be bounded with her forever, and then he subsequently died shortly after his wife's death.

Valentine's Day was a Feast Day

We do know that Saint Valentine's Day was a feast day that likely celebrated a Christian saint and had developed when Pope Gelasius in the late 5th century CE, declared that February 14th would be the feast day associated with the saint. However, the motives for this and stories related to Saint Valentine suggest there may have been some earlier influences on the tradition. We know that many early Christian traditions and feast days were often created similar to pagan festivals, as it helped early converts transition to the new religion. Saint Valentine's Day may not have been different.

The Lupercalia celebrations were held on February 15th to honor fertility and are dedicated to the Roman god Faunus. The festival may have also focused on Rome's mythical founding by Romulus and Remus and how a she-wolf raised them. Goats would be sacrificed, and the blood from goats, along with the hide, would be dragged and slapped or sprinkled on crops and women. This would bring women and crops luck infertility. One legend stated that single women and men were sometimes paired in this celebration, and these matches often ended in marriage.

However, some authors dispute its association with love between people. While it is possible that Pope Gelasius, by the end of the 5th century CE, saw Lupercalia as un-Christian. His declaration of Saint Valentine's Day on February 14th may have been intended to replace the pre-Christian holiday by combing some of the ideas of Lupercalia with a saint story, this is also uncertain.

Later Developments

Figure 2. Depiction of the Charter of the Court of Love may have influenced Valentine's Day traditions.

In Saxon England, young men or boys would often give women their affections small gifts that included gloves. The fact that Saint Valentine's Day is near spring and foreshadowed could have made it more festive in association with love. In some regions, Saint Valentine's Day began to be associated with spring since it was often the time people began to rework in their fields in preparing for the planting season. However, these events did not associate the day directly with love. Although the Roman and other stories associated with Saint Valentine could have connected the day with love, other later traditions may have further added to this idea.

Geoffrey Chaucer, the famous early English author, wrote that the time was associated with birds beginning to pair themselves. In effect, it was a time of pairing and matches, and associations of this to humans may have begun around that time.

In 1400, Charles VI of France commissioned Charter of the Court of Love , which was a charter where on February 14th, contests would be held related to love songs and poetry readings about love (Figure 2). While this story's accuracy is not absolute, what we do know is by the 15th-century, people did begin to wish their beloved Valentine's greetings. The developments around this time have done chivalrous acts between maidens and single men and Valentine's Day. The Duke of Orléans, who was captured in battle against the English, wished his wife a sweet valentine. In England, Valentine's Day also began to be associated with gifts of sweets for children. During the Medieval period, young people put the names of the person they wanted to marry on their sleeves, which has come to us in the expression of putting your heart on your sleeve.

In the 15th century, cards may have begun to be created with notes of affection, although they did not become popular until much later. By 1600, Shakespear's Hamlet has Ophelia discuss her love for Hamlet in association with Valentine's Day.

By the 17th century, Valentine's day became popular among friends and lovers of different classes. At this point, people began to exchange tokens of affection and notes with each other expressing their feelings. Charles II of Sweden in the 18th century began to associate affection with flowers, and it was possibly at this time that flowers were used with Valentine's Day. The single rose at this time may have come to symbolize romantic love.

Modern Celebrations

Modern Valentine's Day has been strongly influenced by American traditions that first derived from the mid-19th century. Esther A. Howland, in the 1840s, began selling cards and gifts that contained real lace, ribbons, and colorful pictures. This time, women became more strongly associated with Valentine's Day than men, where marketing began to focus more on them. Today, they constitute about 85% of Valentine's Day sales.

Around 1900, Valentine cards were popularly produced throughout Europe and replaced letters and notes that lovers would exchange. Valentine cards often contained secret compartments that the women of affection would have to find, which may have contained additional messages or gifts of affection. The British chocolate company of Cadbury began to create decorated boxes of chocolates for Valentine's Day in the 1860s, and that has since made chocolates another association with Valentine's Day.

In the modern world, China and South Korea have taken the mantel of spending the most on Valentine's Day. In other countries outside of the West, many of them had feasts or festivals associated with love. These customs have often been replaced or sometimes integrated with Western Valentine's Day traditions, such as sending chocolates and flowers to a beloved.

For instance, in Wales, St. Dwynwen's Day was the day to celebrate lovers. This falls on January 25th. This tradition's aspects are sometimes combined with February 14th in Wales, or people celebrate the Welsh holiday with Western-style Valentine's Day celebrations.

Summary

Valentine's Day is still an uncertain holiday in terms of its origins. Many stories exist around it, and there might be some truth in each of the stories. The influence of pre-Christian traditions is also possible and likely given many ancient feasts that revolved around fertility and love. The modern date may have been a Christian way to syncretize these ideas with the Christian faith.

Whatever the case might be, later developments such as flowers associated with love and chocolates present to a beloved developed more clearly in the modern era. By the 19th century, Valentine's Day's commercialization had already become evident in the United States with the development of cards and decorative products.