Valentine's Day - The 4 Legends of Happy Valentine's Day

On February the 14th of every year, people all over the world - and most certainly NOT only Christians, as everyone can and does fall in love with equal facility - celebrate Valentine's Day.

The expressions of love that flow forth freely often takes several forms; the exchanging or giving of boxes of chocolates, decadent gift baskets, flowers, cards, or any combination thereof, which are all collectively known as valentines.

Of course, Valentines Day need not be accompanied by expensive commercial gifts - it's a day to show how much you care about your loved one. There are many ways to do this that don't cost money, so start planning - the day's arrival is inevitable!

Fittingly, such expression need not flow merely between lovers; good friends and family members are also held in higher regard on that special day. It is interesting to wonder how such a day came about...

Perhaps the most ancient story purporting to be the origin of Valentines Day is centered on the Roman religion.

By extension, this means that the Romans probably took it from some Greek holiday that is currently lost somewhere in time.

It began as a holiday celebrating the wolf-god-guardian Lupercus, who supposedly kept the wild dogs away from the mighty nation.

Understandably enough, this was cause for celebration, so the Romans decided that festivities would take place on Lupercalia - on the 15th of February.

As two millennia-old legends are wont to do, the holiday got a bit rearranged, losing a day and gaining a different purpose.

Yet another Roman holiday revolved around worshiping the goddess Juno, who was the Roman equivalent of the Greek queen goddess, Hera.

At least here, we can see the hallmark of Valentine’s Days origin: young women would toss their names into a communal bowl, and wait for a boy to pick out a name.

The “lucky” girl would be the young man’s companion for the day – and in many cases, they would eventually marry. Although marriage didn't always follow, it was much more likely than not.

Girls and boys had very different activities back then and didn't mingle very often. There simply weren't many opportunities to be close together, so "love at first sight" wasn't as rare (arguably) as it is today.

You have to understand that there was quite the separation of the sexes back in those days, and young men and women rarely interacted in daily life if they weren't married to each other. Indeed, for more information on Valentines Day check out this comprehensive resource.

And now on to the noticeably more modern interpretation of Valentine’s Day: there was once a priest named – you guessed it – Valentine.

He lived hundreds of years ago (as opposed to the thousands of years ago that the previous origins of Valentine’s Day took place).

In these unfortunate days, there was a Roman king who presided over all the land, and designed to allow marriage between his young male warriors and women, for by his reckoning, he needed the men to fight.

Apparently, no one told the dense old king that men often fight better when they have women for whom to fight; but there wasn’t a premium on psychological studies back then.

Scene cuts to the pious priest Valentine – who wasn’t yet a saint obviously – who secretly married off many young lovers, as was his presumed duty to the Lord.

In those days there were many spies and, apparently, some of them went to secret weddings. In any case, Saint (oops, not yet) Valentine was caught and imprisoned; he was executed on February 14th.

And so, Saint Valentine is remembered for his sacrifice to this day.

There is another story surrounding the priest Valentine, and it appears just as plausible as the previous.

It still involves him being jailed, but this time it was for a considerably more serious offense; instead of disobeying merely the Roman king, Valentine habitually disobeyed the Roman gods, by refusing to pray to them.

Makes sense for a Christian.

While jailed, he was visited by a compassionate young woman, who never failed to keep him company. On the day before he was executed, he penned a letter to her which was signed with his name.

This legend accomplishes two things: establishing St. Valentine’s Day as a holiday, and establishing the sending of “valentines”, or letters, as its primary custom. On Feb 14th in those days, many young women hoped excitedly to receive a valentine in the mail from some suitor, known or not.

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