Circa AD 197History of Valentine's Day
The history of St Valentine's Day, from its pre-Christian origins, involving
nudity and whipping, to its present incarnation as a commercial free-for-all
driving huge sales of chocolate, flowers and jewellery.
Pre-Christian era
In ancient Rome, 13, 14 and 15 February were celebrated as Lupercalia, a pagan
fertility festival. This seems to be the basis for a celebration of love on
this date. It was marked in a subtly different way in those days, however.
According to Noel Lenski, classics professor at the University of Colorado
at Boulder, speaking in the National Geographic, young men would strip naked
and use goat- or dog-skin whips to spank the backsides of young women in
order to improve their fertility; an early IVF, if you will.
A Christian known as Valentine of Terni is martyred in the reign of Emperor
Aurelian. Little is known of his life, except that he was made Bishop of
Interamna (now Terni) in AD 197 and died not too long after. He was
apparently imprisoned, tortured and beheaded on the Via Flaminia in Rome for
his Christianity by the order of a Roman prefect with the oxymoronic name of
Placid Furius. According to legend, he died on 14 February, but that is
likely a later embellishment.
Circa AD 289
Another Christian, Valentine of Rome, is martyred, this time under Emperor
Claudius. A priest or bishop in the city, he was apparently arrested for
giving aid to prisoners. While in jail, he is said to have converted his
jailer by healing his blind daughter's sight. According to another, later
version, he is said to have fallen in love with the daughter, sending her a
note saying “From your Valentine”, but this is apocryphal. In yet another,
equally unlikely version, Claudius was claimed to have banned young men from
marrying, so that they would make better soldiers, and Valentine was
arrested for secretly carrying out weddings. Like his earlier namesake,
Valentine of Rome is supposed to have died on 14 February, but – again –
this is implausible.
Circa AD 496
The then Pope, Gelasius, declared 14 February to be St Valentine's Day, a
Christian feast day. This is likely to have been an
if-you-can't-beat-them-join-them approach to the still-popular pagan
festival of Lupercalia.
AD 1382
Geoffrey Chaucer writes his Parlement of Foules (or “Parliament of Fowls”),
which is widely taken to be the first linking of St Valentine's Day to
romantic love. Celebrating the engagement of Richard II of England and Anne
of Bohemia, he wrote: “For this was on St. Valentine's Day/ When every fowl
cometh there to choose his mate.” However, it is thought that this may have
referred to 2 May, the saint's day in the liturgical calendar of Valentine
of Genoa – this would be a more likely time for birds to be mating in
England.
AD 1400
On St Valentine's Day a court is opened in Paris, the High Court of Love,
dealing with affairs of the heart: marriage contracts, divorces, infidelity,
and beaten spouses. A few years later, Charles, the Duke of Orleans (a
Frenchman, inevitably) writes the first recorded Valentine's note to his
beloved, while imprisoned in the Tower of London following capture at the
Battle of Agincourt in 1415.
AD 1601
St Valentine's Day has entered the popular consciousness to the extent that
one William Shakespeare mentions it in Ophelia's lament in Hamlet:
“To-morrow is Saint Valentine's day,/All in the morning betime,/And I a maid
at your window,/To be your Valentine.”
Mid-18th century
The passing of love-notes becomes popular in England, a precursor to the St
Valentine's Day card as we know it today. Early ones are made of lace and
paper. In 1797, the The Young Man’s Valentine Writer is published,
suggesting appropriate rhymes and messages, and as postal services became
more affordable, the anonymous St Valentine's Day card became possible. By
the early 19th century, they become so popular that factories start to
mass-produce them.
AD 1847
Following the English tradition, Esther Howland of Worcester, Massachusetts,
starts producing cards – using the newly available and much cheaper paper
lace – in the United States.
AD 1913
If you felt cynical, you might call this date the beginning of the end for St
Valentine's Day as a genuinely romantic event, and the start of its
reinvention of a savagely imposed regime of sugar-coated tweeness designed
to chisel spare cash out of lovers and would-be lovers worldwide: Hallmark
Cards produce their first Valentine. Now the date is the flagship “Hallmark
Holiday” - together with Mothers' Day, Fathers' Day and so on, a series of
celebrations notable more for the need to spend money than any heartfelt
sentiment.
AD 1929
The St Valentine's Day Massacre. A savage and bloody event in itself – five
Chicago gangsters lined up and murdered with machine guns, apparently at the
behest of Al Capone – but at least it's a break from the unending stream of
saccharine that the history of St Valentine's Day otherwise entails, and so
is welcome here.
Mid-1980s
The commercialisation continues: noting the sales effect of the holiday on
chocolate, flowers and cards, the diamond industry gets involved, promoting
St Valentine's Day as a time for giving jewellery. The “tradition” takes off.
AD 2009
Valentine's Day generates an estimated $14.7 billion (£9.2 billion) in retail
sales in the United States.
AD 2010
An estimated 1 billion St Valentine's Day cards will be sent worldwide this
year, making it the second most card-heavy celebration after Christmas.
via telegraph.co.uk
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