Every February 14, across the world, couples of all ages exchange candy, flowers, and gifts in the name of St. Valentine. With four days to the second biggest card-sending day of the year, here are the facts you ought to know about the world-wide celebrated lovers’ day.

Who is St. Valentine?

One legend contends that Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he banned marriage for young men.

Valentine, realizing the injustice of the order, disobeyed Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When Valentine’s actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death.

Other stories suggest that Valentine may have been killed for attempting to help Christians escape harsh Roman prisons where they were often beaten and tortured.

According to another legend, Valentine actually sent the first ‘valentine’ greeting himself. While in prison, it is believed that Valentine fell in love with a young girl said to have been his prison guard’s daughter.

Before his death, it is alleged that he wrote her a letter, which he signed ‘From your Valentine,’ an expression that is still in use to date.

Although the truth behind the Valentine legends is dark, the stories certainly emphasise his appeal as a sympathetic, heroic, and, most importantly, romantic figure. It’s no surprise that by the Middle Ages, Valentine was one of the most popular saints in England and France.

Some believe that Valentine’s Day is celebrated in the middle of February to commemorate the anniversary of Valentine’s death or burial, which probably occurred around 270 A.D.

And now, every year on this day people remember St. Valentine, but most importantly, they think about love and friendship.

Is it a Christian or Roman tradition?

According to history, St. Valentine’s Day is associated with residues of both Christian and ancient Roman traditions. It is claimed that Christians may have decided to celebrate Valentine’s feast day in the middle of February, in an effort to ‘Christianise’ celebrations of the pagan Lupercalia festival.

Lupercalia festival, which began on February 15, was a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus (the Roman god of agriculture) and the infant founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus.

To begin the festival, members of the Luperci, an order of Roman priests, would gather at the sacred cave where Romulus and Remus were believed to have been reared by a she-wolf or lupa. The priests would then sacrifice a goat, for fertility, and a dog, for purification.

The boys then sliced the goat’s hide into strips, dipped them in the sacrificial blood and took to the streets; gently slapping both women and fields of crops with the goat hide strips.

Far from being fearful, Roman women welcomed being touched with the hides because it was believed the strips would make them more fertile in the coming year.

Later in the day, all the young women in the City of Rome would place their names in a big pot. Each city bachelor would then choose a name out of the pot and become paired for the year with his chosen woman.

These matches often ended in marriage. To ‘Christianise’ the pagan festival, Pope Gelasius therefore declared February 14, St. Valentine’s Day around 498 A.D. The Roman ‘lottery’ system for romantic pairing was believed to be unchristian and banned.

In ancient Rome, February was the official beginning of spring and was considered a time for purification. Houses were ritually cleansed by sweeping and then sprinkled with salt throughout the interiors.

Three saints

Another history of St. Valentine’s Day is believed to come from three different Saint Valentines and all martyrs. One is a priest in Rome, and another a bishop of Interamna (modern Terni).

These are believed to have suffered in the second half of the third century and have been buried on the Flaminian Way, in Rome, but at different distances from the City. The third Saint Valentine suffered in Africa with a number of companions, nothing additional is known about him.

Valentine’s cards

It is believed that the oldest known valentine in existence today is a poem written by Charles, Duke of Orleans. He wrote it to his wife while in prison in the Tower of London, following his capture at the Battle of Agincourt.

The greeting written in 1415 is part of the manuscript collection of the British Library in London, England. Several years later, King Henry V, hired a writer named John Lydgate to compose a valentine note to Catherine of Valois.

In Great Britain, Valentine’s Day began to be popularly celebrated around the seventeenth century. By the middle of the eighteenth century, it was common for friends and lovers in all social classes to exchange small tokens of affection or handwritten notes.

By the end of the eighteenth century, printed cards began to replace written letters due to improvements in printing technology. Ready made cards were an easy way for people to express their emotions in a time when direct expression of one’s feelings was discouraged. Cheaper postage rates also contributed to an increase in the popularity of sending Valentine’s Day greetings.

Americans probably began exchanging hand-made valentine cards in the early 1700s. In the 1840s, Esther A. Howland began to sell the first mass-produced valentines in America.

In the second half of the twentieth century, the practice of exchanging cards was extended to all manner of gifts in the United States, usually from men to women.

Such gifts typically included roses and chocolates until the 1980s, when the diamond industry began to promote Valentine’s Day as an occasion for giving jewellery.

The day has also come to be associated with a generic platonic greeting of "Happy Valentine’s Day,” and as a joke, it is also referred to as "Singles Awareness Day” in America.

In some North American elementary schools, students are asked to give a Valentine card or small gift to everyone in the class. The greeting cards of these students often mention what they appreciate about each other.

Valentine’s Day traditions

The popular customs associated with Saint Valentine’s Day certainly had their origin in a conventional belief generally received in England and France during the middle ages, that on February 14 (half way through the second month of the year), the birds began to pair.

Both the French and English literatures of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries contain references to the practice. Perhaps the earliest to be found is in the 34th and 35th Ballades of the bilingual poet, John Gower, written in French.

Hundreds of years ago in England, many children dressed up as adults on Valentine’s Day. They went singing from home to home.

In Wales, wooden love spoons were carved and given as gifts on February 14th. Hearts, keys and keyholes were favourite decorations on the spoons. The decoration meant, "You unlock my heart!”

In the middle ages, young men and women drew names from a pot to see who their valentines would be. They would wear these names on their sleeves for one week.

To wear your heart on your sleeve now means that it is easy for other people to know how you are feeling. In some countries, a young woman may receive a gift of clothing from a young man. If she keeps the gift, it means she will marry him.

Some people used to believe that if a woman saw a robin flying overhead on Valentine’s Day; it meant she would marry a sailor. If she saw a sparrow, she would marry a poor man and be very happy. And if she saw a goldfinch, she would marry a millionaire.

Another western belief are five or six names of boys or girls youths wish to marry; as a young man or woman twists the stem of an apple, they recite the names until the stem comes off. The person to marry is the one whose names are said at the moment the stem falls off.

Facts

- Date: February 14.

- Also called: St. Valentine’s Day.

- Observed by: Western and Western-influenced cultures.

- Type: Cultural, multinational.

- Observance: Sending greeting cards and gifts, dating.

- Significance: Lovers express their feelings to each other

- Related to: The Night of Sevens, a Chinese holiday that also relates to love. White Day, a similar holiday that is also celebrated in Japan and Korea one month after Valentine’s Day.

- In the 1969 revision of the Roman Catholic Calendar of Saints, the February 14 feast of St. Valentine was removed from the General Roman Calendar and reduced in importance to particular (local or even national) calendars; for the reason that apart from his name, nothing was known of the saint except that he was buried on the Via Flaminia on February 14.

- The first mass-produced valentines of embossed paper lace, ribbons and colourful pictures known as "scrap”, were produced in the United States by Esther Howland (1828-1904) of Worcester, Massachusetts, and sold shortly after 1847.

- In America, Valentine’s Day ranks fourth on the list of holidays with the most candy sales.

- Approximately 74 percent of Americans celebrate Valentine’s Day and about 15% of women in the US exchange flowers. Approximately 85 percent of all valentines are purchased by women.

- The first Valentine’s Day box of chocolates was introduced by Richard Cadbury in 1868.

- According to the Greeting Card Association, an estimated one billion Valentine cards are sent each year, making Valentine’s Day the second biggest card-sending day of the year. The oldest known Valentine card is on display at the British Museum, London, UK.

- Teachers are believed to receive the most Valentine’s greetings.

Valentine symbols and language

Rose flowers: Poets and scholars have likened the beauty of their sweethearts to that of roses. Rose, as the queen of flowers, symbolises peace and war, love and forgiveness.

There are formal meanings of different coloured roses in some cultures:

White   -    true love and purity of mind.

Red      -    love and passion.

Yellow  -   friendship.

Black   -  farewell.

Pink    -  friendship or sweetheart.

Hearts: To a beloved, there is no symbol as important as the heart. To give a person one’s heart means to give one’s whole to the other; the heart being at the centre of one’s existence. The heart stands for the most profound and noblest of human emotions - love.

Through ages, it has inspired millions to rise above the dull cares and to get lost in the thought of their beloved. Thus a heart, pierced by the cupid’s arrow, has become the most famous of the Valentine’s symbols.

Cupid: This is the legendary god of Love, supposedly responsible for people falling in love. According to the legends, anyone being hit by Cupid’s arrow falls in love with the first person he or she meets.

His naughty intentions have led to some entertaining situations in various legends. Cupid in the Roman tradition has Eros, the son of Aphrodite, as his counterpart in the Greek legends. The names of both gods are used synonymously with the concept of love today.

Love knots: In strict Muslim households, young women used to send love pledges to young men via messages woven through the knots of a carpet in an Arab tradition. This tradition of sending messages through knots gave birth to the concept of love knots that is common today.

Love birds and doves: It was believed that on this romantic day, birds found their mates. This belief is still cherished by love struck people all over the world. The sweet little blue coloured lovebirds have come to signify that belief.

It is said that the lovebirds can not live without their mates. Dove, in the Christian belief signifies purity, humbleness and innocence. Hence, these two birds have become the most endearing symbols of the Valentine’s Day spirit.

Lace: Is a symbol of romance as a result of its use on bridal veils.

Love names

Nicknames are given to manifest the closeness of two persons. Being in love, lovers call each other different nicknames which sometimes reflect the person’s character and personality; though at times they can be far from the character of the person named.

"Be my Valentine”, "Dear Valentine”, are some of the common nicknames written on greeting cards and love letters on Valentines’ Day.

On Valentine’s Day, falling in love again with a loved one is a gesture that will keep your relationship glowing and ever new.

Expression of emotions through exchange of gifts will lighten up your affection and tighten the love bond. Happy Valentine’s Day!!

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