It’s that time of year again when the icy months of January and February loom and seem to last an eternity. However, a brief reprieve from the gloomy winter is here at last, full of chocolate and hearts and pink! It’s Valentine’s Day, and for this special edition of The Daily Campus, I wanted to dive past the greeting card company decorations to discuss the origins of this hallowed day and some of the traditions with it.
The beginnings of Valentine’s Day are believed to potentially date back to the ancient pagan Roman festival of Lupercalia. The festival itself was centered around fertility and dedicated to the Roman god of agriculture, Faunus, and the founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus. On this holiday, Roman priests would gather in a sacred cave. This place was believed to be the home of Romulus and Remus when they were taken care of by the wolf, Lupa. The priests would then sacrifice a goat and a dog for fertility and purification.
According to “Lupercalia and its relationship to Valentine’s Day” by Helen Charlie Nellist from the Vindolanda Museum, the priests would then cut the goat hide to form strips called februa that were used to hit women as they went through the streets. Women often welcomed this activity as it was believed to have brought on fertility for the coming year.
As pagan rituals in Rome faded with the rise of Christianity, the Catholic Church may have sought to Christianize the Lupercalia festival by celebrating St. Valentine instead. Regarding accuracy, St. Valentine was a real person who was martyred in the third century by Emperor Claudius II Gothicus, but there are varying accounts of his story.
Some popular versions of the legend claim that he was a priest and physician during a time of Christian Persecution. While awaiting execution, it is said that he fell in love with the blind jailer’s daughter and healed her of her ailment. In their last correspondence, he would leave her a letter signed, “Your Valentine.” Others claim that he was the bishop of Terni, Italy, and had illegally married couples to prevent them from being conscripted into the army. Both versions retain the common theme of love, but it is difficult to verify either with how sparse the records were during that time.
Either way, if you would like to see St. Valentine for yourself and are looking for any fun date ideas, there are several holy relics across the globe, including his skull at a basilica in Rome and his shoulder blade at a basilica in Prague, in case you’re looking for any fun date ideas. Nothing says romance like an ancient reliquary.
The holiday as we know it today began to take shape in the 18th century, gaining popularity through the 19th and 20th centuries. A large portion of why greeting cards have become so associated with the holiday was not only from the legend but also due to legislation in the 1850s. The United States Congress decreased postage rates to avoid the privatization of the postal service, making it more affordable to send postcards and letters in the mail, according to a Time article by Rachel E. Greenspan. Then came the advent of Hallmark’s Valentine’s Day cards in 1916, which remain a staple today.
To all the lovebirds out there, have a splendid holiday this weekend. To those of you who are single, maybe it’s time to take a page out of the book of St. Valentine and take a chance on new love. If worse comes to worst, at least future scholars will get to study your skull in the nearest basilica. Happy Valentine’s Day!