For this was on Saint Valentine’s day,
When every fowl comes there his mate to take,
Of every species that men know, I say,
And then so huge a crowd did they make
(Parliament of Fowles, Chaucer, 1382 – LH Phillips Memorial Public Library)
“Parlement of Foules” is the apparent first surviving record of a connection between Valentine’s Day and romantic love. Chaucer probably composed the poem in 1381–82. The date suggests that Chaucer wrote “Parlement of Foules” to honor the first anniversary of the engagement of the English King to Princess Anne of Bohemia.
Saint Valentine’s Day, or simply Valentine’s Day, is celebrated on the 14th of February, almost internationally but primarily in western societies. It is a commemorative Christian feast for some but a secular occasion for others who see it as a day to celebrate affection in all of its forms but primarily romantic love. (World History Encyclopedia)
The day may have taken its name from a priest who was martyred about 270 CE by the emperor Claudius II Gothicus. According to legend, the priest signed a letter “from your Valentine” to his jailer’s daughter.
Other accounts hold that it was St. Valentine of Terni, a bishop, for whom the holiday was named, though it is possible the two saints were actually one person. Another common legend states that St. Valentine defied the emperor’s orders and secretly married couples to spare the husbands from war. It is for this reason that his feast day is associated with love. (Britannica)
February had been very important for the Romans; and the celebration of the pagan festival of Lupercalia, dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, and to Romulus and Remus, the mythological founders of Rome.
The name presumably derives its etymology from lupus, meaning wolf and perhaps referring to the she-wolf, which, according to one form of the legend of Romulus, raised the two boys who founded the city.
The festival involved the sacrifice of a goat and a dog; the goat’s hide would be cut into strips and dipped in its blood, and priests, called Luperci, would then carry these strips and gently slap crop fields and women with them, with the latter being eager for this treatment as they believed that it would make them more fertile in the coming year.
Young women would then proceed to put their names in a large urn from which bachelors would take one and be bonded to that woman for the whole year. They could participate in all forms of physical relationship, and most but not all of these relationships would end in marriage. (World History Encyclopedia)
When the Roman Empire was Christianized, such pagan activities were deemed unacceptable. Many pagan celebrations were replaced with Christian holidays, and thus Lupercalia (if it was indeed practiced this way and in February) may have also transformed into something more acceptable to the church.
The original purpose that Saint Valentine’s Day served is not clear; it may be a toned down elements of Lupercalia or it was a commemorative day for the martyrs of the early Christian era. (World History Encyclopedia)
Formal messages, or valentines, appeared in the 1500s, and by the late 1700s commercially printed cards were being used. The first commercial valentines in the United States were printed in the mid-1800s. (Britannica)
London’s relationship with Valentine’s Day cards goes back at least two hundred years. By the mid 1820s, an estimated 200,000 valentines circulated annually within London.
In 1840, the Post Office introduced a new service where letters could be sent across the country for one penny using the first postage stamp, known as the Penny Black. The number of Valentine’s Day cards sent then skyrocketed. By the late 1840s the number was reported to have doubled, and had doubled again by the 1860s. (London Museum)
Valentines commonly depict Cupid, the Roman god of love, along with hearts, traditionally the seat of emotion. Because it was thought that the avian mating season begins in mid-February, birds also became a symbol of the day. Traditional gifts include candy and flowers, particularly red roses, a symbol of beauty and love. (Britannica)
