Saint Valentine’s Day is celebrated on 14th February, originally starting as a Christian Feast Day for a martyr named Valentine. The Valentines honoured on 14th February are Valentine of Rome and Valentine of Terni. The Valentine of Rome was a priest in Rome who was martyred in 269 and added to the calendar of the saints by Pope Gelasius I in 496. Valentine of Terni is said to have been martyred during the persecution under Emperor Aurelian in 273. It is celebrated in the Eastern Orthodox Church on 6th July.
It is said that St. Valentine was imprisoned for succouring persecuted Christians. He was interrogated by Roman Emperor Claudius II, who was impressed with him and tried to convert him to Roman paganism in order to save his life. But Valentine refused and tried to convert Claudius to Christianity instead, so he was executed. Before he was executed it was said to have performed a miracle by healing the blind daughter of his jailer Asterius. It is said he performed clandestine Christian weddings for soldiers who were forbidden to marry by Claudius. According to legend, in order “to remind these men of their vows and God’s love, Saint Valentine is said to have cut hears from parchment”, giving them to these soldiers and persecuted Christians, a possible origin of widespread use of hearts on the day. He supposedly wore a purple amethyst ring, customarily worn on the hands of Christian bishops with an image of Cupid engraved in it, a recognisable symbol associated with love that was legal under the Roman Empire. Roman soldiers would recognise the ring and ask him to perform marriage for them.
The feast of Saint Valentine originated in Christendom in honour of Valentine, as recorded in the 8th century Gelasian Sacramentary. In Ancient Rome, Lupercalia was observed 13th-15th February on behalf of Pan & Juno, pagan gods of love, marriage and fertility. The celebration is not known to have had any romantic connotations until Chaucer’s poetry about “Valentine’s Day” in the 14th Century. The earliest description of an annual celebration of love appears in the Charter of the Court of Love. The charter, allegedly issued by Charles VI in 1400, describes lavish festivities to be attended by several members of the royal court, including a feast, amorous song and poetry competitions, jousting and dancing, as well as the attending ladies hearing and ruling on disputes from lovers.
In 1797 a British publisher issued “The Young Man’s Valentine Writer” which contained scores of suggested sentimental verses for the young lover unable to compose their own. Printers had already begun producing a limited number of cards with verses and sketches, called mechanical valentines. Paper Valentines became so popular in England in the early 19th century that they were assembled in factories. In 1835, 60,000 Valentine cards were sent by post in the UK. In 1868, Cadbury created Fancy Boxes, a decorated box of chocolates in the shape of a heart, and boxes of filled chocolates became associated with the holiday.
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