Valentine’s Day: A day where love is at the forefront of the holiday; a time where we gather together and appreciate your friends, family, and significant others (though some people prefer to eat tubs of Ben & Jerry’s while watching Love Island for the 15th time).
But what is Valentine’s Day? Where does it originate? What are common traditions, and finally, why do we continue to celebrate it?
Around 270 A.D., is the first recorded instance of a holiday akin to Valentine’s Day. It was a Pagan holiday called “Lupercalia.” In the festival, Roman priests would gather around a sacred cave where Romulus and Remus, the brothers who founded Rome, were raised by a she-wolf, or “Lupa” in the Roman dialect. The priests at the altar dedicated to the twins would sacrifice a goat for fertility and a dog for purification. They would then skin the goat, dip its skin in the sacrificial blood, and slap women and crops with the bloodied goat hide for female fertility and good crop harvests.
Another tradition of the Pagan festival involved women putting their names in an urn (akin to the “Goblet of Fire” or a raffle); then, the single men in the city would pick a name out of the urn and be paired with the recipient for a year, which typically ended in marriage. The tradition was swiftly outlawed when the Christian religion became the primary religion of Rome under the Great Emperors Constantine and Theodosius I.
This did not immediately develop into the holiday we know and celebrate today, however. Valentine’s Day occurred at the same time as Lupercalia, thereby proving that the only reason Lupercalia is assumed to be the origin of Valentine’s Day is their similar time interval and the mildly similar traditions caused by Pagans converting to Christianity and bringing their customs with them.
“Very often, the History Channel mischaracterizes the origin of religious holidays,” said Fort AP US Government teacher Mr. Randazzo, so we should take this connection with a grain of salt.
Then there are the Christian stories of how Valentine’s Day originated, which are far more similar to the holiday we celebrate today. Also referred to as “The Legend of Saint Valentine,” the story states that Claudius II of Rome outlawed marriage to provide more men for his army. St. Valentine denounced this edict and kept marrying people in secret; when he was caught, he was swiftly executed. Many other stories depict him helping Christians escape Roman prisons to save them from persecution.
In the Middle Ages, birdwatchers in France started linking bird mating seasons with February 14th, and soon people wrote stories about the “lovely day” and Valentine’s Day as we know it today. Cupid came about from the Romans after observing the Greek god of love, Eros.
Today, Valentine’s Day is often derided as nothing more than mass consumerism masked by love, as companies keep pushing item after item related to the holiday, including a variety of candies. However, there are also “aphrodisiacs.” These are foods that, when consumed, are said to induce “lovey” feelings. Some of these foods are figs, honey, chili peppers, bananas, oysters, chocolate, and red wine. The way these foods influence testosterone and estrogen is said to trigger parts of the brain that influence romantic feelings; however, after about 60 oysters, you’re going to feel like your heart is bursting out of your chest, and not because of love.
Valentine’s Day is a day built on superstitions and ideas of how to express one’s love through materials, food, and goat skin. But the true way to express love is individualized and personalized; it cannot be standardized. Valentine’s isn’t only for those in romantic relationships, but just for friends and family whom you love and appreciate in your daily life.
