Modern Day Valentine’s Day:

Every year on Feb. 14, Americans commemorate Valentine’s Day by sending cards or letters, giving presents such as sweets or flowers and dining out with loved ones.

Many individuals regard Valentine’s Day as an opportunity to shower their partner with extravagant presents such as jewelry. It’s also a great time to propose to someone or get married.

In classes, students may construct their own Valentine cards, which are traditionally embellished with images of hearts, red roses or Cupid. On the card, a simple and charming message, such as the well-known rhyme: Roses are red, Violets are blue, Sugar is sweet, and so are you!

“When I think of Valentine’s Day, usually what comes to mind is old elementary school memories from when everyone used to hand out candy and Valentine’s letters to everyone,” senior Thomas Frias said.

Frias notices that his Valentine’s Day has changed over the years.

“I usually just go through it like a regular day. Just wake up, go to school, go home, sleep, repeat,” senior Frias said.

Why does this practice change as we get older?

“Well, my wife does not like celebrating Valentine’s Day. So we just kind of treat it like a regular day. Our kids kind of do the Valentine’s Day thing and they give Valentine’s to their classes and to their friends and stuff, but we typically don’t really celebrate that. My wife also doesn’t like holidays where it’s like “hey, write a card and spend money.” She thinks we should express our love to each other every day, not just on this one day so that we can sell candy or coffee or whatever the gifts are going to be,” teacher Marcus Merrifield responded.

Where did this celebration and holiday originate? The truth about Valentine’s legends is shrouded in mystery.

A common theory: The Legend of St. Valentine:

In the third century, Valentine secretly married young couples in Rome under the reign of Emperor Claudius II because Claudius banned young men from marrying because he thought they would make better soldiers without a family. If they died there would be less sorrow or more focus on being a soldier. Word spread that he was doing this, and Valentine was beheaded.

“St. Valentine is remembered as a saint because he sacrificed himself for the love of others,” Merrifield said.

Other legends state that Valentine was slain for attempting to assist Christians in escaping the harsh Roman jails, where they were frequently beaten and tormented.

According to legend, an arrested Valentine sent the first “valentine” message after falling in love with a young girl who visited him during his confinement—possibly the jailor’s daughter. He is said to have sent her a letter inscribed “From your Valentine” before his death, an idiom that is still used today.

Although the reality underlying the Valentine legends is hazy, all of the stories highlight Valentine’s allure as a compassionate, courageous, and, most importantly, amorous person.

Valentine became one of the most popular saints in England and France throughout the Middle Ages, probably as a result of his reputation for being compassionate.

Another theory: Valentine’s Day’s roots are formed from Lupercalia

Despite the fact that Valentine’s Day is named after a martyred Christian saint, some historians think the celebration is a descendant of Lupercalia.

Unlike Valentine’s Day, Lupercalia was a gruesome, barbaric, and sexually charged event that involved animal sacrifice, random pairing, and coupling in the hopes of warding off demons and infertility.

Lupercalia was a Pagan festival that took place in Rome every year from Feb. 13-15.

Lupercalia’s precise beginnings are unknown, however, it has been dated back to the 6th century B.C.

According to Roman legend, King Amulius ordered Romulus and Remus, his twin nephews and Rome’s founders, to be thrown into the Tiber River and drowned in retaliation for their mother’s breach of her chastity vow.

However, a servant felt sorry for them and placed them in a basket on the river instead. The river god transported the basket and the brothers downriver, where they were entangled in the branches of a wild fig tree.

A she-wolf in a lair at the base of Palatine Hill, where Rome was established, rescued and cared for the boys.

After being adopted by a shepherd and his wife, the twins learned of their father’s job. They located the cave den of the she-wolf who had raised them and called it Lupercal after murdering the uncle who had ordered their death.

Lupercalia is supposed to have been held to honor the she-wolf and to appease the Roman fertility deity Lupercus.

To honor Lupercus, sacrifices of one or more male goats (a representation of sexuality) and a dog were made. The sacrifices were performed by Luperci, a group of Roman priests. Afterward, the Luperci cheered as the blood of the animals was smeared on the foreheads of two nude Luperci with the gruesome, sacrificial dagger.

To commemorate the sacrifice, they feasted and the Luperci cut strips of goat hide, called thongs, for the next step of the festival. Following the sacrificial sacrifice, feasting started. Men then sprinted throughout Palatine, naked or almost so, whipping any lady with their thongs. Many women accepted the whips, even baring their skin to participate in the reproductive ritual; nonetheless, it is unclear what the whips represented.

Then men picked a woman’s name at random from a jar to be paired with them for the remainder of the festival. The couple would frequently stay together until the next year’s event. Many people met, fell in love, and married.

Nakedness became less fashionable at Lupercalia throughout time. Women were whipped on their hands by fully dressed males as the celebration became more chaste, albeit still undignified.

Lupercalia survived the early Christian era but was forbidden at the end of the fifth century, when Pope Gelasius established Feb. 14 as St. Valentine’s Day since it was judged “un-Christian.” However, it was not until much later that the day became inextricably linked to love.

When did the connection between Valentine’s Day and love begin?

During the Middle Ages, it was widely thought in France and England that Feb. 14 marked the start of bird mating season, adding to the notion that Valentine’s Day should be a day of passion in the middle of the month.

In his 1375 poem “Parliament of Foules,” English author Geoffrey Chaucer was the first to mention St. Valentine’s Day as a day of love festivity, saying, “For this was sent on Seynt Valentyne’s day / Whan every foul cometh ther to pick his spouse.”

Valentine greetings were common in the Middle Ages, but it wasn’t until 1400 that written Valentines began to appear.

A poem written in 1415 by Charles, Duke of Orleans, to his wife while imprisoned in the Tower of London following his arrest at the Battle of Agincourt is the earliest known valentine still in existence today. (The greeting is currently in the British Library’s manuscript collection in London, England.) King Henry V is said to have employed a writer named John Lydgate to write a valentine message to Catherine of Valois some years later.