Valentine’s Day is when you express your love to your friends, family, or significant other with cards, flowers and chocolates. Each year Americans spend around $18.2 billion each year, and the numbers continue to rise. But this day of love did not begin as kind and warm.

Valentine’s Day started in Roman Festival Lupercalia. This festival was  dedicated to Faunus, Roman god of agriculture, and to fertility. This festival lasted from February 13 to February 15. In these three days, men picked out  a woman’s name from a box to be paired. The men slaughtered animals and whipped women with their hides in the belief that it would make the women fertile. With the rise of Christianity in Europe, many pagan holidays were renamed and dedicated to the early Christian martyrs. In 496 AD, Pope Gelasius turned Lupercalia into a Christian feast day on February 14, in honor of Saint Valentine, a Roman martyr who lived in the 3rd century.

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia website, there were at least three Christian saints by the name of Valentine. One was a priest in Rome, another was a bishop in Terni and the third St. Valentine met his end in Africa. All three of them were said to have been martyred on February 14.

The first Saint Valentine held secret weddings for soldiers. Soldiers were banned from marrying since Claudius II because he believed marriage weakened soldiers. When Saint Valentine was imprisoned, his jailer, Asterius, asked for the saint to cure his blind daughter. Valentine did this for his jailer and the two became close friends. Asterius’ daughter and Valentine sent letters that eventually became love letters. On the day of his execution, Valentine’s last words he wrote to her were, “From your Valentine.”

On February 14, in the third century A.D., Saint Valentine was executed. His day became known as the day that young lovers write love letters to each other. “From your Valentine” became a popular way to sign letters and cards.

This bloody and tragic way of showings ones love to another has now become soft and sweet. Senior Erika De La Torre may be skeptical about the holiday, but she said, “Valentine’s Day is a commercialized holiday, but still a day you can spend with your loved ones.”

For more historic information, visit:

http://www.theholidayspot.com/valentine/history_of_valentine.htm

https://www.rd.com/culture/dark-history-of-valentines-day/

https://www.mirror.co.uk/lifestyle/sex-relationships/relationships/valentines-day-february-14-meaning-11838880?service=responsive