How did Valentine's Day go from dark to a love celebration? Here is the origin of the holiday (2024)

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How did Valentine's Day go from dark to a love celebration? Here is the origin of the holiday? ›

When did Valentine's Day become about love and stuff? According to History.com, Pope Gelasius I, to expel pagan rituals, combined the festival with St. Valentine's Day in the fifth century. The holiday seemed to mature from the revelry of ancient Rome to a day of romantic love over time.

Geoffrey Chaucer Links Valentine's Day to Romance

By the Middle Ages, thanks to this reputation, Valentine would become one of the most popular saints in England and France. Perhaps that's why, in the 14th century, Valentine's Day took a romantic turn, thanks to the influence of English poets like Geoffrey Chaucer.

Valentine's Day did not come to be celebrated as a day of romance until about the 14th century. Although there were several Christian martyrs named Valentine, the day may have taken its name from a priest who was martyred about 270 ce by the emperor Claudius II Gothicus.

The first known depiction of a heart as a symbol of romantic love dates to the 1250s. It occurs in a miniature decorating a capital 'S' in a manuscript of the French Roman de la poire.

Saint Valentine was discovered and imprisoned in a torture-ridden Roman jail, where he fell in love with a mysterious girl (believed to be his prosecutor's daughter). He sent her a love letter signed 'from your Valentine' right before his execution, thus originating the romantic sign-off still widely used today.

One Valentine was a priest in third-century Rome who defied Emperor Claudius II after the ruler outlawed marriage for young men. St. Valentine would perform marriages in secret for young lovers, ultimately leading to his death.

"Some historians place the origin of the Feast of Saint Valentine in ancient Rome, in a pagan festival called Lupercalia, which is celebrated on the 15th of February," the magazine stated.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

Many historians believe the seeds of Valentine's Day were planted in Lupercalia, an ancient Roman festival honoring Juno, the Roman goddess of marriage, and the Capitoline Wolf, a mythic creature who supposedly suckled Romulus and Remus, Rome's twin founders, when they were abandoned as infants.

If that works for you, do it. But the biblical pattern teaches us that romantic love between husband and wife should be on display often and much. It isn't that celebrating Valentine's Day is too much; it is too little and weak. Christians, live your married years so that you don't need Valentine's Day.

Why is the heart shaped like ❤? ›

No one really knows where the heart symbol comes from, but there are theories. One is that the heart shape comes from the shape of the leaves of a now-extinct plant called silphium, which was considered a key component of a love potion in the time of the Romans.

While imprisoned, Valentine cared for his fellow prisoners and also his jailor's blind daughter. Legend has it that Valentine cured the girl's blindness and that his final act before being executed was to write her a love message signed 'from your Valentine'. Valentine was executed on 14 February in the year 270.

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Numerous later additions to the legend have better related it to the theme of love: tradition maintains that Saint Valentine performed weddings for Christian soldiers who were forbidden to marry by the Roman emperor; an 18th-century embellishment to the legend claims he wrote the jailer's daughter a letter signed "Your ...

While the Saint Valentine story set the groundwork for establishing the day as a holiday for romantic love, what truly solidified the connection between Saint Valentine and love was a poem by medieval author Geoffrey Chaucer in 1375, which historians consider the origin of the "modern" celebration of Valentine's Day, ...

St. Valentine's Day Massacre, mass murder of a group of unarmed bootlegging gang members in Chicago on February 14, 1929. The bloody incident dramatized the intense rivalry for control of the illegal liquor traffic during the Prohibition era in the United States.

This Saint Valentine wore a ring with a Cupid on it—a symbol of love—that helped soldiers recognize him. And, in a precursor to greeting cards, he handed out paper hearts to remind Christians of their love for God. Because of this legend, Saint Valentine became known as the patron saint of love.

Many British bloggers and online critics described Valentine's Day as "an American copycat version of Love Actually", focusing on how Valentine's Day, like Love Actually, has an all-star cast whose characters' storylines intertwine with one another.

Hallmark founder J.C. Hall began selling Valentine's Day postcards in 1910. As postcards declined in popularity, Hallmark added greeting cards to its line in 1912. Valentines were added to the company's inventory in 1913.

Valentine's Day traditions have evolved a lot over the years. For example, in the Middle Ages—which lasted from the 5th to 15th centuries in Europe—people started exchanging handmade cards with love notes inside. Today billions of dollars are spent on Valentine's Day cards and gifts each year around the world.