Valentine’s Day used to be a Roman fertility festival

14 February is the feast of St Valentine, who was executed by Roman Emporer Claudius II on that date, supposedly for marrying young couples after the marriage of young men was outlawed, because the empire needed young male soldiers. The holiday may have been created to overshadow the pagan festival of Lupercalia, when Romans sacrificed goats and dogs and whipped women with their hides. Why? They believed it made women more fertile.