Valentine’s Day; the one day a year when we are supposed to be skipping around with hearts beating full of love and excitement, heady with the anticipation of an evening of romance, but why? Who decided this was the day when lovers loved and cynics scowled, whilst roses trebled in price and restaurants bulged with cosy couples.
After many hours perusing a variety of websites, including History Online and Catholic Online, I may have got to the bottom of it and, surprisingly, it turns out Hallmark didn’t invent the concept. In fact, it’s been a heart shaped day on the calendar longer than you would expect; A.D.496 to be precise, when Pope Gelasius first marked the 14th February as a day of celebration to honour St Valentine’s martyrdom, and we have been celebrating it ever since.
So, let’s go back to the very beginning, or at least what is generally accepted as the beginning, and it’s a tale as old as time; shrouded in mystery and debate.
Cue romantic music and wispy clouds…
The name Valentine actually comes from ‘Valentinus’, the Latin word for worthy or powerful. Between the second and eighth centuries A.D, the moniker became a popular leading to more Valentines being canonised and to date, there are around a dozen ‘St Valentine’s’, but we need to go even further back, around A. D. 270, to learn more about the man responsible for all the hearts and flowers; the patron saint, St Valentine of Rome.
What I seem to have worked out is that way back in the annals of history, the mean Roman Emperor, Claudius II felt single men made better soldiers, so he merrily banned marriage for young men. Valentine, who was the Bishop of Terni, felt the injustice of these laws and defied the authorities, continuing to perform weddings, minister to Christians and convert non-believers. This came to the attention of Claudius and he was put under house arrest with Judge Asterius, to whom he continued to pledge his religious beliefs and the validity of Jesus.
The Judge decided to put Valentine’s religion to the test and presented him with his blind daughter, vowing to become his servant if could restore her sight, which he duly did. Humbled by what he had witnessed, Asterius immediately destroyed all the ‘false idols’ around his home, fasted for three days and was baptized before freeing all his Christian prisoners. Of course, this enraged the Emperor and Valentine was taken to Rome, where Claudius ordered him to renounce his faith, or be beaten and beheaded. Refusing, Valentine was executed on 14th February A.D.269 having left a farewell letter with the Judge’s daughter signed simply, ‘Your Valentine’. In the eyes of the Catholic church, his actions made him a martyr and he was canonised, becoming known as St Valentine of Rome.
That’s just a rough summary and, like most religious stories, there are many versions, inc Valentine being a temple priest, or falling in love with his jailer’s daughter, along with different dates and places. With so little being known about him, the Catholic church removed St Valentine from the General Roman Calendar in 1969 but, thankfully for Hallmark, he is still recognised as a saint. Whatever the story, they all result in Valentine dying at the hands of Claudius II and, whilst tellings may differ, the fact remains that Valentine did actually exist in one form or another as archaeologists have unearthed Roman catacomb and an ancient church dedicated to him.
And that’s the tale of St Valentine of Rome, but is that the start of the story?
As with many religious celebrations, it’s believed the Christian church may have decided to place St Valentine’s day in the middle of February to take advantage of ‘Lupercalia’, a pagan Roman festival celebrated at the ides of February, (15th).
According to Wikipedia and Encyclopedia Britannica, Lupercalia was conducted by priests called Luperci and was associated with the god of fertility, Faunus. The rite began with the sacrifice of a dog and two goats following which, two young priests approached the altar to have their foreheads touched with a bloody knife. The blood was then wiped off with milk soaked wool, the two men would laugh and the sacrificial feast with salt mealcakes, prepared by vestal virgins followed. Later, the Luperci created thongs from the hide of the sacrificed animals, dressed themselves in the skins of the sacrificed goats and ran around Palatine Hill, striking any woman who came close enough to the blood soaked thongs. The young women and girls were eager to be slapped with the hide, welcoming it as an aid to fertility in the coming year.
Roses and chocolates don’t look so bad now do they?
The Lupercalia festival was eventually outlawed by the Church, with Pope Gelasius declaring St Valentine’s Day, but it’s not until when, in the Middle Ages, the day became associated with the start of the birds’ mating season, that love blossomed. This seems an appropriate time to point out that St Valentine is also the Patron Saint of bees.
Ok, now we have the man, we have the season and we have the reason, but what’s with the written declarations of love and endearment in cheesy cards? How did a letter signed ‘Your Valentine’ become a rally cry to express your deepest feelings in poetic verse?
It seems first written Valentine messages started appearing in the 1400’s, with the medieval English poet, Geoffrey Chaucer, long since being given the *credit/blame (*delete as appropriate) for inventing the Valentine’s Day we celebrate today. There’s no record of any romantic celebrations on 14th February until 1375 when Chaucer wrote Parliament of Foules. In it he links the tradition of courting with holding a feast on Valentine’s Day, something unheard of before then, but which is now a key part of the day’s festivities.
In 1415 Charles, Duke of Orleans, wrote a poem to his wife from the Tower of London, where he was being held prisoner following his capture at the Battle of Agincourt. This declaration of love is now part of the manuscript collection of the British Library in London, so if you are ever looking for the message that will get you the most bonus points, you know where to head. It seems imprisonment is a great way to get the creative valentine juices flowing, although I don’t recommend modern star-crossed lovers go to such extremes to improve their prose!
In 1597, Shakespeare gave us the biggest love story of them all, with Romeo declaring to his Juliet, “my bounty is as boundless as the sea, My love as deep; the more I give to thee, The more I have, for both are infinite”. If you are ever stuck for a valentine quote to win over your sweetheart’s love; let the Bard do the writing for you.
By the 18th century we were all over the idea of Valentine’s Day, just in time for Robbie Burns to claim “And I will luve thee still, my dear, Till a’ the seas gang dry”. It became more common for people from all walks of life to exchange small gifts and handwritten notes with friends and lovers, although the bar for the perfect message was already set quite high by the 19th century. In 1845, after reading her poetry, a little-known poet, plucked up the courage to write to Elizabeth Barrett for the first time. This letter was the first of nearly six hundred they wrote to each other and ignited one of the literary world’s most enduring love affairs. In 1850 and inspired by love, Elizabeth asked “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways”, in her collection of forty four love sonnets, dedicated to that poet; her husband, Robert Browning
Thankfully, the need to be inventive and wordy was finally resolved in the 1900’s when printed cards started to appear; much to the relief of many a wordstruck lovers, trapped in an era when a direct expression of one’s feelings was positively discouraged. Fast forward to 2017 and the perfect valentine’s message is merely a Google away with Amazon on hand to provide anything you need for those last minute ‘lack of inspiration’ gifts.
Right, to recap: we have the man, the season, the reason, and the rhyme. All that’s left to work out is the big romantic gesture, proposals and roses; mustn’t forget the roses.
St Valentine is the patron saint of engaged couples, epilepsy, fainting, greetings, happy marriages, love, lovers, plague, travellers and young people, oh and bee-keepers; bless those wonderful bee-keepers! I’ll side-step plagues for now, but with so much responsibility to love, lovers, engaged couples, happy marriages and those greetings, it seems St Valentine of Rome really is worthy of us going that extra mile in his honour.
It’s important you put a lot of thought into your starring moment; after all, this is going to set the standard for the rest of your relationship, right? Start off too big and you are going to spend the rest of your Februarys trying to outdo ‘the best Valentine’s Day ever’. Start off too small and… well you probably won’t have to worry about the second one!
But what to do? Well as you sit and ponder your grand moment, it’s worth noting that unless it compares to the likes of King Nebuchadnezzar II building the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, or Mughal emperor Shah Jahan commissioning The Taj Mahal, then you may just come up a bit short. You could take a leaf from composer Richard Wagner’s music sheet and compose a symphony or, assuming you have one, you could follow the example of Edward VIII and abdicate your throne (N.B giving up your seat on the bus does not count). How about locking yourself in the bathroom and recreating one of Horace Greasley’s two hundred escapes from a World War II Nazi prison of war camp to be with his lover, Rosa Rauchbach? Bit too much? Perhaps the love note in their lunch time piece will do the trick.
Finally, on to the roses. Why do we send these blood red blooms to our paramour? St Valentine of Rome is depicted in pictures with birds and roses, but the Greeks and Romans had long since tied the red rose to their goddesses of love, Aphrodite and Venus.
Traditionally, the red rose is the flower of choice when it comes to declaring your undying love, but as Shakespeare himself says, “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet” so what are the other (and let’s be honest, cheaper) options?
Well, according to the font of all knowledge (Wikipedia) asters can be used as symbols of love, as well as chrysanthemums, primrose, lilacs, crocus, gardenia, forget-me-not and even daisies. It seems red tulips stand for undying love, although these shouldn’t be confused with the hopeless love of a yellow tulip. Gorse is a ‘love for all seasons’ kind of flower, whilst honeysuckle promises devoted affection and even the much maligned and over-looked red carnation implies a deep and passionate love (although if you receive a striped carnation in return, you may have lucked out).
On the flipside, it’s probably best to avoid narcissus (for obvious reasons) as well as the one-sided love of a white tulip and, as the hydrangea can mean frigidness or heartlessness, you might want to leave them off the shopping list too.
If all this information has filled you with panic, it’s worth noting that if you get it wrong on 14th February, there’s always the option of celebrating one of the other dozen St Valentines; I mean, who says St Valentine of Rome should get all the fuss? You could add in that element of surprise and get ahead of the game with St Valentine of Raetia on 7th January, or hold a late recovery on 3rd November, by honouring St Valentine of Viterbo, assuming your disappointed beau is speaking to you by then.
So there you have it; the reason why we celebrate St Valentine’s Day on 14th February, what’s expected of us and why but, if this post has filled you with inspiration and you’re now rushing around in panic to plan a romance filled day of petals and prose, it’s worth remembering the wise words of Helen Keller, “The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart”.
Happy Valentine’s Day
The Wobbly Cyclist 