Valentine’s Day: The Darker Side of the Origin

Valentine’s Day, St. Valentine’s Day or “Día del Amor y la Amistad” (“Day of love and Friendship”) is a holiday in which lovers, family, and friends give gifts to each other demonstrate the affection to their loved ones. This holiday, just like most holidays, have an older, different and sometimes darker origin story compared to its modern counterpart.

The origin of Valentine’s Day goes back around the year 270 A.D. (C.E) during the era of the Roman Empire. The Romans had a more gruesome way to celebrate such holidays like Valentine’s Day. During the 12th and 15th of February, the Romans celebrated the day of Lupercalia. The day of Lupercalia, also known as the feast of Lupercalia, was a holiday/festival in which the Romans celebrated the arrival of the spring season. This festival included rituals that were used to increase fertility among families and bring men and women together by some kind of game similar to a lottery.

This ancient lottery game was a ritual that would bring families together and would also bring luck in the upcoming spring season. In this game, men would draw names from a jar and this would randomly match men with women. This matching process would only apply during this festival, but it was the temporary couple’s decisions to keep these relationships after the festival.

There were other Lupercalia festival rites that were even more horrifying that simple games. Other rituals included Romans sacrificing animals such as dogs, goats, or deer, among other animals. Women would line up to get whipped by the Romans near to the deceased animals. The Roman people believed that the sacrifice and whipping of women would wash their sins from the gods and would grant them fertility, especially those women that were hit. In the late 200s on February 14th, the Romans executed a couple of men, both named Valentine.

Many people argue that Valentine’s Day was originally named after the death of these men on February 14th as their names were both “Valentine.”

According to history.com, “the Catholic Church recognizes at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom were martyred. One legend contends that Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he outlawed marriage for young men. Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When Valentine’s actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death. Still others insist that it was Saint Valentine of Terni, a bishop, who was the true namesake of the holiday. He, too, was beheaded by Claudius II outside Rome.”

In the late 500s, the Pope Gelasius I prohibited the festival of Lupercalia. Many argue that this was attributed by replacing it with St. Valentine’s, however, due the darker, gruesome and more violent previous holiday, Lupercalia was banned by the Pope. Back then, Valentine’s Day was considered a “love” holiday as we know it nowadays. It wasn’t until the 1400s that it became a holiday that represented a day of romance, love and kindness among people.

Throughout the years the holiday has been adapted and evolved depending on the culture in which they are being practiced. In the 500s, the Pope Gelasius I switched the Lupercalia festival for Valentine’s Day. He wanted to do this as way to expel the old and violent rituals and eradicate the sins which originated with this holiday.

During this same time, the Normans had their own way to celebrate Valentine’s Day. The Normans celebrated Gallatin’s Day. Gallatin’s Day was similar in meaning as it meant “love a woman” day. This was confused between these cultures and was somewhat amalgamated into what is today known as Valentine’s Day. Some people argue that William Shakespeare was a major influence when it comes to romanticizing and popularizing the concepts of love and romanticism for Valentine’s Day.

This concept of romanticism caused the holiday to expand and grow in terms of it meaning. During the 1500s, throughout Europe, especially Britain, the concept of “love cards” became famous. In the 1700s, business started printing Valentine’s Day love cards. These cards started using the “Cupid”, the Roman God of Love. This character goes along with hearts and arrows that would represent the feeling of love and how people use this holiday to represent their love for someone in the most romantic way possible. Modern Valentine’s Day traditions include gifts such as candy, flowers, and red roses that represent romanticism, passion and love.

Valentine’s Day is another holiday used as a most special day to show love, however, Valentine’s Day is just one day among all the other days of the year that can used to express love for our loved ones.

Congratulations to Mr. Valentín Caballero and Sofia Rocha whose birthdays are on February 14th.

Imperial Valley resident A. Ricardo Heredia is a middle school teacher in Yuma, Arizona, a master’s degree student at CETYS University and a local musician. He is a history major and researcher in European and Greek mythology. He can be reached at aheredia96@hotmail.com.