Whilst today we celebrate the holiday to show affection for our loved ones, St. Valentine’s Day has a much darker history than you may think.
Its exact origin is unclear, but many historians believe that Valentine’s Day evolved from the ancient festival of Lupercalia, which occurred on the 15th of February. This was a Pagan holiday which celebrated fertility. There would be lots of nakedness, and it is thought that men in the community would slaughter a goat and a dog to mark the occasion.
Then, a group of priests called the Luperci would then cut off a piece of skin from the animals and touch it to their foreheads. Women would then be beaten with the animal hides in the belief that it would make them fertile; quite different from today’s gift of flowers, cards and chocolate boxes.
Young boys would pick the names of young women at random, and the couples would spend the day together, sometimes leading to marriage.
Shakespeare famously references this festival in Julius Caesar, the play beginning during the festival of Lupercalia. Ceasar instructs Mark Antony to strike his wife Calpurnia, believing that this will make the couple able to conceive a child.
In the Roman era, when Pope Gelasius became the bishop of Rome in 492, pagan festivals were replaced by Christian ones. The Catholic church declared the 14th of February to be a day of feasts to celebrate the martyred Saint Valentine.
Some scholars believe that Saint Valentine was a priest from Rome in the third century AD. After Emperor Claudius II had banned marriage due to his belief that married men were bad soldiers, Saint Valentine arranged marriages in secret. Doing this, he was eventually found out, jailed and sentenced to death.
While imprisoned he fell in love with the daughter of the jailer, and before being taken to be killed, he sent her a love letter signed “from your Valentine”.
So, whatever your Valentine’s Day plans, I hope they are much sweeter than those of the fifth century!