A festival that has now become a commercial free-for-all driving huge sales of chocolate, flowers and jewellery had its origins in Pre Christian day involving nudity and whipping.
The 14th February, Valentine’s day is now celebrated the world over.Its origins go back to Ancient Rome and the pagan festival of Lupercalia, which honoured the gods Lupercus and Faunus, as well as the legendary founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus.Young men would strip naked and use goat or dog-skin whips to spank the backsides of young women in order to improve their fertility.
The brutal fete included a matchmaking lottery, in which young men drew the names of women from a jar. The couple would then be coupled up for the duration of the festival, or longer, if the match was right.
The name Valentine came from a Christian, Valentine of Terni who was martyred in the reign of Emperor Aurelian, imprisoned, tortured and beheaded on the Via Flaminia in Rome for his Christianity by the order of a Roman prefect Placid Furius and from Valentine of Rome martyred under Emperor Claudius after being arrested for giving aid to prisoners. Many legends surround him.One that whilst in jail, he converted his jailer by healing his blind daughter’s sight and fell in love with her, sending her a note saying “From your Valentine”.
In AD 496, Pope, Gelasius, declared 14th February to be St Valentine’s Day, a Christian feast day as with many Christian festivals it would combine the pagan date with the Christian celebrations
Shakespeare would write of it in Ophelia’s lament in Hamlet: “To-morrow is Saint Valentine’s day,/All in the morning betime,/And I a maid at your window,/To be your Valentine.” as did Chaucer when celebrating the engagement of Richard II of England and Anne of Bohemia, “For this was on St. Valentine’s Day/ When every fowl cometh there to choose his mate.”
There was also a conventional belief in Europe during the Middle Ages that birds chose their partners in the middle of February. Thus the day was dedicated to love, and people observed it by writing love letters and sending small gifts to their beloved. Legend has it that Charles, Duke of Orleans, sent the first real Valentine card to his wife in 1415, when he was imprisoned in the Tower of London.
By the 19th century, the anonymous St Valentine’s Day card became was being mass produced.Hallmark Cards produce their first Valentine cards in 1913.
Today an estimated one billion cards will be sent worldwide , making it the second most card-heavy celebration after Christmas.
