Valentine's Day: Let's know its history of love

 

Valentine's Day celebration 

Valentine's Day, also known as Saint Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is an annual festival that celebrates romantic love, friendship, and admiration. On 14th February each year, people mark this day by expressing messages of love and affection to their partners, family, and friends.

History of Valentine's Day 

There are various hypotheses concerning the origins of Valentine's Day, but the most prevalent one connects it to the Roman festival of Lupercalia, which is observed in mid-February to honor the entrance of spring. A lottery was used to couple men and women during this festival. Later, Pope Gelasius I substituted Lupercalia with St. Valentine's Day, and by the 14th century, it had transformed into a romantic holiday.

The Catholic Church honors at least three saints called Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom were martyred. According to one account, Valentine was a priest in Rome during the third century. When Emperor Claudius II thought that single men were better soldiers than those with wives and kids, he declared marriage illegal for young men. Valentine, seeing the injustice of the law, resisted Claudius and secretly married young lovers. When Claudius uncovered Valentine's crimes, he sentenced him to death. Others argue that the holiday's original namesake was Saint Valentine of Terni, a bishop. Claudius II beheaded him as well, just outside of Rome.

According to other accounts, Valentine may have been slain for attempting to assist Christians in escaping harsh Roman jails, where they were frequently beaten and tormented. According to one legend, an imprisoned Valentine delivered the first "valentine" message himself after falling in love with a young girl—possibly his jailor's daughter—who visited him while he was incarcerated.

Prior to his death, he is said to have sent her a letter inscribed "From your Valentine," an idiom that is still used today. Although the reality of the Valentine legends is unknown, the stories all highlight his attractiveness as a sympathetic, valiant, and, most significantly, amorous person. Valentine became one of the most popular saints in England and France by the Middle Ages, maybe due to his reputation.

When did Valentine's Day got associated with Love?

Prior to the 14th century, St. Valentine's Day was mostly about remembering a Christian martyr. Geoffrey Chaucer, an English poet, is credited with linking Saint Valentine's Day to the concept of romance. Chaucer lived during the Middle Ages, a time when courtly love was celebrated via broad, lyrical expressions of devotion—poems, ballads, and paintings. In his poem "The Parliament of Fowls," written in 1382 and probably to honor King Richard II's engagement, he imagines birds gathering on Saints.