The History Of Valentine’s Day & Why We Celebrate It
Valentine’s Day is a day of celebrating love and amore. People exchange tokens of love and adoration on this day to show appreciation for their belove...Almost everyone swoons over a good love story, but the history of Valentine's Day is, well, not quite that. We all know February 14 as a day of gift-exchanging, sweet treats, and mushy romantic dinners. But less familiar is the reason why we celebrate the holiday of love in the first place. Just like the history of any other festival, Valentine's Day's religious roots too sometimes sidelined in favour of more material interests. The modern iteration of the holiday with all its rosy hearts and kisses has quite a bubbly feel compared to its origin story, which is in reality a bit gory.
Valentine's Day wasn't always all cherubs and hearts. As you probably know, the day is named after St. Valentine but our story starts long before he comes into the picture. Valentine’s origin might stem from the ancient pagan festival of Lupercalia, which predated Christianity. Similar to the modern Valentine's Day, the Roman festival was celebrated in the middle of February and involved feasting and pairing off partners.
However, unlike Valentine's Day, it was a bit of a raucous celebration filled with debauchery, blood, and sacrifice.
The theory goes that as Romans turned away from their pagan beliefs and embraced Christianity, Valentine’s Day evolved into the day of honouring St. Valentine. Lupercalia was eventually outlawed at the end of the 5th century, right around the time Pope Gelasius declared February 14 as St. Valentine's Day.
