BY LOUISE
Happy Valentine’s Day to you and yours!
Today is the day when it is acceptable universally to be mushy and express your love for another, or yourself, in any way you see fit.
Have you ever wondered, though, about how Valentine’s Day became a thing? Here is a short summary of the story behind what Valentine’s Day is and how it started.
Valentine’s Day gets its name from a famous saint, St Valentine but there are many stories of who he was. However, there is a popular belief that he was a Roman priest in the 3rd century A.D.
Legend has it that Emperor Claudius II had banned marriage because he thought being married caused men to perform poorly as soldiers. Valentine disagreed with this and so he arranged marriages in secret, breaking the Emperor’s rules.
When he was discovered, he was thrown in jail where he fell in love with the jailer’s daughter. When he was taken to be killed on 14 February, he sent her a love note signed “from your Valentine”.
In later years, the Romans started to celebrate a festival called Lupercalia in the middle of February. It was thought as a part of the celebrations; boys drew names of girls from a box and start a relationship with them. They got married often after.
The church wanted to turn the festival into a Christian celebration and they decided to remember St Valentine on that day too.
Little by little, St Valentine’s name was used by other people to express their feelings to loved ones and so it begun, Valentine’s Day as you have it now.
Fun Fact: Did you know that the first Valentine’s Day was in the year 496?
