Valentine's Day

Part I

Every February people go out to purchase cards, candy and flowers. These gifts are given as tokens of affection to loved ones on the 14^th of February, Valentine’s Day. This holiday is celebrated in many areas of the world, each country with their own traditions. However, it is difficult to obtain a single story which explains how this holiday came about in the first place. There are many stories surrounding the origins of Valentine’s Day, and the saint for which the day is named.

One legend asserts that Valentine was a priest who performed marriages in secret. This was done in opposition to Emperor Claudius II, who had decreed that young men shall not be married because single men were better soldiers. When his actions were discovered, Valentine was put to death. Another version of Valentine’s story is that he was executed after helping Christians escape Roman prisons. Others say that Valentine was put to death for love of his faith, refusing to renounce his religion. A fourth legend of Valentine had him sending the first "valentine" from prison to his love, the jailer’s daughter. There is no concrete evidence as to what the real story of Valentine is, but in each tale the man died at the hands of the Roman government, making him a romantic figure.

The celebration of Valentine’s Day has ties to both Christianity and Roman paganism. There are three St. Valentines honored in the Catholic Church, however it is unknown which of these men the Church had planned to celebrate on February 14^th. Of the three men, one was a priest in Rome, one a bishop in Terni and the third died in Africa. The particularly interesting link between these men, other than their names, was that they are all said to have been martyred on February 14^th.

Looking at the celebration from an ancient Roman perspective, February 14^th coincides with the pagan festival of Lupercalia. This was a festival to celebrate purification and fertility. A dog and a goat would be sacrificed, after which young men would take strips of goat hide and run through the town. With the goat hide , they would lightly strike women, an act that was welcomed as it was believed to erase bad luck and infertility. In later years, a lottery was implemented in which young men would draw the names of available young women and the couples would be paired for at least the duration of the festival. It is thought that the Catholic Church decided to celebrate St. Valentine on the 14^th of February in an attempt to make the transition from paganism to Christianity less turbulent. There are a number of examples of Christian holidays which coincide with ancient Roman festivals.

Modern celebrations of Valentine’s Day still have links to Roman paganism. One of the most common symbols associated with Valentine’s Day is that of Cupid, a mischievous child who shoots people with arrows which cause them to fall in love. Cupid is a being that has roots in both Greek and Roman mythology. In Greece he was known as Eros, the son of the goddess of love, Aphrodite, while in Rome he was Cupid, son of Venus.

Valentine’s Day has a complex history that is grounded in a number of cultures. However, despite this complexity, it has become a widely recognized day on which one is supposed to express their affection for others. Regardless of one’s belief system, Valentine’s Day is now seen as a holiday that is meant to celebrate love, particularly romantic love.

Part II

This was a very interesting paper to write. Finding information on Valentine’s Day was tricky, though not because there are not enough sites which dedicate space to discussing the holiday. The trick was to ascertain which site had reliable information, with some evidence backing it up.

I began by looking on the History Channel’s website. I felt that this was a site known to be reputable. It is well funded and created by people with a legitimate interest in history, rather than an unknown source whose knowledge can not be relied upon. Once reading their information on the history of Valentine’s Day, I began looking at other sites. From here, I tried to find sites which had similar facts. There were many different interpretations of the facts, but the sites I looked at had all the same main points.

I also stayed away from sites upon which anyone can editorialize. It seemed that it might be in the interest of the research to look at sites where there is just one main contributor. In the cases of those sites it seems that there is a greater chance that the information has been acquired through research, rather than a mix of information that a number of people have put together, some with knowledge of the subject and others without.

Even with the various methods I attempted to employ in finding information, the only site that I used that I felt I could really trust was that of the History Channel’s. I think this is only because I knew of it before hand. Also, it was clearly the most well funded of the sites which I looked at. The information garnered from this site seemed the most professional done. All in all, finding information for this essay was not nearly as difficult as deciding what information was valid.