Like Most holidays I often wonder how far back we can turn the clocks to when it all began and it turns out with Valentines Day we can turn the clocks WAY back.
Did you know Valentines Day has Pagan roots? Historians believe the day was originally called Lupercalia and Celebrated on the 15th rather than the 14th. Lupercalia was a Roman-Pagan festival honouring the gods Faunus and Lupercus who were the gods of agriculture and fertility, while also honoring Romulus and Remus, the mythical founders of Rome. At the time things were a lot less romantic than the day is now, it involved animal sacrifices and more.
So how did Valentines day change to how we know it today and where did it get its name? Although it’s not officially know which saint Valentine, in 496 AD Pope Gelasius I banned the Lupercalia festival and declared February 14th a day to celebrate the life of a martyred Saint Valentine. Many stories of how he reached martyrdom, but the most popular one says he was executed for conducting marriages for solders in secret during a time when it was outlawed in order to keep soldiers focused on war.
It wasn’t until the middle ages however that Valentines Day became a day to celebrate romance. As European birds were observed pairing around this time every year, connecting the day with the feeling of romance through poems from authors like Geoffrey Chaucer and even Shakespeare!
