Chocolate, flowers, and teddy bears are all things usually purchased to celebrate Valentine’s Day. Valentine’s Day is celebrated on February 14, and has been around since the 14th century. However, many who celebrate this day don’t know how it even came to be. What is the origin of Valentine’s Day?
February has long been regarded as a romantic month, and that there are elements of both Christian and ancient Roman custom in the modern-day celebration of St. Valentine’s Day. However, who was Saint Valentine and how did this ancient ritual come to be associated with him? The tale that is most widely accepted starts in Rome in the third century, when Christian persecution was at its height. Since unmarried men were better soldiers, Emperor Claudius II ruled that young men could not be married. Valentine, a priest, felt that this was unjust and chose to secretly wed young lovers. Claudius took notice of this and ordered the priest to be imprisoned and killed. Valentine assisted his jailer’s daughter with her illness while he was incarcerated. He wrote her a note signed “From your Valentine,” a phrase that is still used today, prior to his execution. According to legend, his sentence was executed on February 14, 270 AD. Father Valentine died as a martyr for love and the value of matrimony (O’Malley 2022).
According to another version, Valentine was slain for assisting Christians in escaping Roman jails. Valentine’s ministry was to help Christians escape persecution. The widespread use of hearts on Saint Valentine’s Day may have originated from Saint Valentine cutting hearts out of parchment and presenting them to soldiers and persecuted Christians in an effort to “remind them of God’s love and to encourage them to remain faithful Christians.” Many people think that Valentine’s Day was first a Pagan festival and is now celebrated in remembrance of Valentine’s passing. Others, however, think that St. Valentine’s Day was positioned in the middle of February by Christians in an attempt to Christianize the fertility celebration known as Lupercalia, which took place on February 15 (O’Malley 2022).
Although this holiday originated with the intention to be focused around the celebration of love, modern time may argue this focus has shifted. Our current capitalistic holiday was sparked by the creation of the first Hallmark card in 1913. Chocolates are sold by Hallmark and other big businesses that capitalize on Valentine’s Day in order to grow their multibillion-dollar businesses (Guadango 2022). About $27 billion is spent by people on Valentine’s Day. Holiday-related merchandise usually winds up in landfills (Golubovic 2024).
A lot of people think Valentine’s Day is entirely a capitalist festival. That doesn’t have to be the case all the time. Spending time with the people we care about can make it a day to celebrate all relationships. The harmful social stigma that encourages gift-giving for the sake of a capitalist nation rather than out of love, is fostered for people that follow the customs that commercial firms have established. Therefore, perhaps a more meaningful gift than anything materialistic is to spend time with those who genuinely care.
Sources Used:
https://medfieldhistoricalsociety.org/the-origins-of-valentines-day/
https://riptide.vashonsd.org/february-2022/valentines-day-a-holiday-built-on-capitalism/
https://www.michigandaily.com/opinion/columns/capitalism-is-ruining-valentines-day/