A Brief History of Valentine's Day

Posted by Daniel Calandrelli on Jan 28th 2020

Valentine's Day - a yearly tradition of love, chocolate, flowers and of course JEWELRY (our favorite, by the way). This tradition has an interesting past that we think is worth sharing. The rich, yet dark, past of this romantic holiday dates back to the Roman Empire.

The holiday originated as a festival called the festival or ritual of Lupercalia. The festival celebrated the coming of spring as well as paired men and women together. Pope Gelasius, eventually replaced the Roman festival with St. Valentine's Day which was celebrated as we know it today as a day of romance.

But why St. Valentine? There are many legends that explain why we call February 14th, a day of romance, love, and affection, Valentine's Day. The story goes that St. Valentine reached saint-hood after Roman emperor Claudius Gothicus, known as Claudius II, outlawed marriage for young men. Claudius II did this because he realized that single, young men made better soldiers than those who had wives and children. The Roman Empire at the time had the most powerful military spanning across most of the world. Once Valentine heard of what Claudius II had done, he decided that he must intervene. Valentine, being a priest, decided that we would go against the emporor and perform secret marriages for young men and women. Once it was discovered that Valentine was still performing marriages on young lovers, he was sentenced to death. Due to his valor, Valentine was named the patron saint of lovers and thus we celebrate St. Valentine's Day.

St. Valentine's bravery paved the way for a day of love and romance that spreads gloabally. Americans began exchanging valentines greetings as far back as the 1700s. Mexico, Canada, United Kingdom, France and Australia are also countries the celebrate Valentine's day. Today, an estimated 145 million Valentine's Day cards are sent, making this the second largest card-sending holiday of the year (Christmas is the first)