History of Valentine's Day

by Joyce Gale

 

Around AD 270 in the day of the Roman Empire lived a Christian Priest named Valentine in the town of Terni in Umbria (Italy) at the time of Claudius 11. A pagan festival called Lupercalia (after the God Lupercus) was celebrated on the 15th February. It was believed Lupercus would keep the people healthy and protect them from wild wolves so the people sang and danced to keep the town safe.

Claudius 11 wanted to keep a strong hold over his soldiers as he felt married men made poor fighters, so he forbade them to marry. Valentine in deviance secretly married the soldiers and their loved ones. For this deed Valentine was caught and whilst in prison it was thought Valentine fell in love with the blind daughter of the jailer (Asterius). After praying the blind girl regained her sight, and the jailer and his family became Christians and were baptised. Claudius angered by Valentine’s refusal to give up Christianity had him beheaded on February 14th. Before Valentine died he signed a farewell message to the girl “from your Valentine”. In later years when Christianity got a strong hold in Umbria (Italy) Valentine was canonised to St Valentine becoming a patron Saint of lovers. It is believed that there were in fact two or three martyred Valentines from this region.

On the evening of 15th February in the Middle Ages young women put names in a ceramic jar and every young man would pick a name, and wear these names on their sleeves for one week. To wear your heart on your sleeve means it is easy for others to know your feelings. Written valentines appeared about 1400. The earliest card was sent by Charles, Duke of Orleans to his wife while she was a prisoner in the tower of London, this card is now in the British museum. In the sixteenth century, the Bishop of Geneva, tried to stop the custom of cards, rather than their demise they became more abundant. Paper valentines were exchanged in Europe in place of gifts, and were to become very popular in England, which were made by hand and very over sized and elaborated.

The first valentine recorded in America is 1625, and attributed to Miss Esther Howland, who later went into mass production. It was considered to sign a card would bring bad luck. The first bird a girl sees on Valentine’s Day represented who she would marry: a robin meant a sailor, goldfinch a richman, and a woodpecker meant no husband. As cards became popular a number of obscene valentines caused several countries to ban them. In Chicago in the late nineteenth century, the postal service rejected twenty-five thousand cards as being unfit for U.S.Mail. Except at Christmas Americans send more cards on Valentine’s Day then at any other time of the year. It is estimated that one billion Valentine cards are sent worldwide (Christmas 2.6.billion cards) approximately eighty-five per cent of valentines are purchased by women. Valentine’s Day is celebrated in U.S., Canada, U.K., France and Australia.

In Wales wooden love spoons were carved with hearts, keys and keyholes and given on February 14th. In some countries, young women often received a gift of clothing from a young man. If she kept it, it meant she would marry him.

Early in the 1800s valentines began to be made in factories, being black and white; the workers painted and decorated them with real lace and ribbons. At the end of 1800 they were being made entirely by machine in mass production.

Joyce Gale © 2003