❤️Happy Valentine’s Day!❤️

Many countries around the world celebrate St. Valentine’s Day on 14th February, but do you know the history of this romantic day?

According to Dr. Michael Carter of English Heritage , St. Valentine’s Day began as a Christian festival, to commemorate a priest who was martyred (killed for his beliefs) around the year 270 near Rome. His remains were moved to Rome for burial, and a church built close to the burial site became a place of pilgrimage for his followers.

By the early sixth century, St. Valentine’s name had appeared in a list of Christian martyrs, called the “Martyrology of St Jerome”, and his popularity spread throughout Europe, reaching England by the eighth century. February 14th was recognised as his feast day, and was widely celebrated in many churches.

Nobody really knows why St. Valentine came to be associated with romance, though there have been various suggestions through the years. Some believe that he secretly performed Christian marriages, defying the Roman Emperor Claudius II, though there is no evidence of this. Others have said that he secretly passed love notes between couples, though again, this is probably a story that was created many years after his death. More recently, it has been suggested that it stems from a pagan fertility tradition, called Lupercalia, which took place in Rome in the middle of February. This cult had been banned by the end of the fifth century, so it is suggested that people simply moved this celebration to St. Valentine’s feast day, which had been established by this time, although again, there is no evidence of this. Whatever the truth of the matter, by the fourteenth century in England, the idea of romance and February 14th were firmly linked, and although the feast of St. Valentine disappeared from the church calendar during the Protestant Reformation, the day was still widely celebrated.

By the eighteenth century, people in the UK were writing anonymous love notes to each other on Valentine’s Day, and special cards were being commercially produced by the nineteenth century, however by the end of the century, the tradition of sending cards and gifts had fallen out of practice, as the Victorians felt that such things were too frivolous. In the 1920s, people slowly began to return to this tradition, but it wasn’t until the 1950s that Valentine’s Day really became popular again. Now, the festival is a very commercial event, with billions of pounds being spent in the UK on flowers, gifts and cards every year.

Do you celebrate Valentine’s Day in your country? How do you celebrate? What does this day mean to you? Let me know in the comments below! 💌