It occurs every 14 February, and whether you love it or hate it, it is impossible to avoid: Valentine’s Day. Shop displays fill with heart decorations, chocolates, flowers and cheesy cards, while streaming platforms promote their sappiest romantic films. But where does the tradition come from? And what was the meaning behind this day before consumerism took over?
1. Saint Valentine
The namesake and patron saint of Valentine’s Day is Saint Valentine. However, there are varying theories about who this figure was and how he became associated with a February celebration, a month that had long been considered symbolic of romance.
Within the Catholic tradition, there are at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom were martyred. One legend tells the story of Valentine, a priest in Rome during the third century, when Emperor Claudius II reportedly decided that single men made better soldiers and therefore outlawed marriage for young men. Valentine is said to have defied the decree by secretly performing marriages for young lovers. When his actions were discovered, Claudius allegedly ordered his execution. Other accounts suggest that Valentine secretly married couples who were forbidden to wed because of religious differences. Some historians believe that the true namesake may instead have been Saint Valentine of Terni, a bishop who was also executed by Claudius II outside Rome.
Some sources even suggest that Saint Valentine may have been two distinct historical figures. According to legend, Valentine healed a child while imprisoned, shortly before his execution. Other stories claim he was killed for helping persecuted Christians escape harsh Roman prisons, where they were often beaten and tortured. One enduring legend tells of an imprisoned Valentine who sent the first ‘valentine’ greeting after falling in love with a young woman, possibly his jailer’s daughter, who visited him during his confinement. Before his death, he is said to have written her a letter signed ‘From your Valentine’, an expression still used today.
The truth remains unclear. Yet while the stories differ, they all portray Saint Valentine as a compassionate, heroic and romantic figure. Perhaps for this reason, by the Middle Ages, Saint Valentine had become one of the most popular saints in England and France. Today, the Roman Catholic Church continues to recognise Saint Valentine as a saint, although he was removed from the General Roman Calendar in 1969 due to the lack of reliable historical information about his life. He is considered the patron saint of lovers, epileptics and beekeepers, even if the details of his story remain shrouded in mystery.
2. Valentine’s Day
There are also differing theories as to why Valentine’s Day is celebrated on 14 February. Some claim that the date marks the anniversary of Saint Valentine’s death or burial, believed to have occurred around AD 270. Others suggest that the early Christian Church deliberately placed Saint Valentine’s feast day on this date in an effort to ‘Christianise’ the pagan festival of Lupercalia.
Lupercalia was a pagan fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, as well as to Romulus and Remus, the legendary founders of Rome. The celebration began with members of the Luperci, an order of Roman priests, gathering at a sacred cave where Romulus and Remus were believed to have been cared for by a she-wolf, or lupa. The priests would sacrifice a goat for fertility and a dog for purification. Strips of the goat’s hide were dipped in sacrificial blood before the priests ran through the streets, gently striking women and crops, a ritual believed to promote fertility in the coming year.
According to legend, later in the day young women would place their names into an urn, from which the city’s bachelors would draw names to form pairs for the year, relationships that often ended in marriage. Although Lupercalia initially survived the rise of Christianity, it was eventually deemed incompatible with Christian values and outlawed at the end of the fifth century. Pope Gelasius I is traditionally credited with declaring 14 February Saint Valentine’s Day.
3. Romance
It was not until much later that Valentine’s Day became firmly associated with romantic love. During the Middle Ages, it was commonly believed in England and France that 14 February marked the beginning of birds’ mating season, reinforcing the idea that it should be a day dedicated to romance.
English poet Geoffrey Chaucer is often credited with popularising this association. In his 1375 poem Parliament of Foules, he wrote: “For this was sent on Seynt Valentyne’s day / Whan every foul cometh ther to choose his mate.”
By the late Middle Ages, Valentine greetings had already become popular. However, written valentines did not appear until after 1400. The oldest known valentine still in existence is a poem written in 1415 by Charles, Duke of Orléans, to his wife while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London. This message is now preserved in the British Library. Several years later, King Henry V is believed to have commissioned the poet John Lydgate to compose a valentine message for Catherine of Valois.
4. Cupid
Another iconic figure associated with Valentine’s Day is Cupid, the familiar winged cherub who fires arrows of love at unsuspecting victims. Cupid originates from Roman mythology but has his roots in Greek mythology as Eros, the god of love.
In early Greek poetry, Eros was portrayed as a handsome and powerful immortal who influenced the emotions of gods and humans alike. He wielded golden arrows to inspire love and leaden arrows to provoke aversion. It was only during the Hellenistic period that Eros began to be depicted as the mischievous, chubby child that has since become synonymous with Cupid and modern Valentine’s Day imagery.
The story of Valentine’s Day is far more complex than its modern commercial trappings suggest. Rooted in ancient pagan rituals, shaped by early Christian traditions and later romanticised during the Middle Ages, Valentine’s Day has evolved over centuries into the celebration we recognise today. While chocolates, flowers and cards may now dominate the occasion, the enduring fascination with love, devotion and human connection remains at its heart.
