Valentine’s Day: The Roman Festival of Lupercalia?

No matter what critics say about the rampant commercialism of the occasion, Valentine’s sales from greeting cards, flowers, jewelry, and chocolates go up every year. In 2004 alone, about one billion cards are sent all over the world; a third of the seven billion pounds of candy/chocolates consumed that year was sold on Valentine’s day; 110 million roses were sold and more or less $2.4 billion worth of jewelry were bought and given away as gifts.

But how did the whole thing start? Although there are many versions of this particular history, there are only two likely relevant and reliable stories to be attributed to this ancient celebration.

According to the Catholic church, we celebrate the occasion to honor the martyred Saint Valentinus, a third-century priest who defied the orders of Emperor Claudius II not to perform marriage rites to members of his Army. The emperor believed that his troops should only be composed of single and unattached men. Emeperor Claudius ordered the priest beheaded on Feb 14 270AD for disobeying orders. But delving deeper into its origin, another interesting explanation emerges dating back to the ancient Roman fertility & purification festival then popularly known as Lupercalia.

The feast ran from February 13-15 and parts of the celebration included the anointing of young naked males who would go around and strike young women with a strip of goatskin (goats then being a symbol of sexual vigor). It was believed that this would bestow fertility to those struck (reminscient of Cupid striking with the amorous arrow).

On February 14th, names of unmarried maidens and young men were drawn and paired off to be lovers for a year. In essence, this ancient tradition was Christianized by adopting it into the catholic church official calendar. The feast was officially incorporated in 496 AD but was later dropped only to be reinstated in 1969, to continue into the present-day celebration of the Feast of St. Valentine.