The grim history of Valentine's Day

A time to celebrate love, passion, and a commitment to one another with a kiss on the cheek, Valentine's Day is a festival that is celebrated annually. On the other hand, the history of this holiday that honors sweets and cupids is quite cryptic, graphic, and a little bit hard to understand.

Ancient Rome is an excellent location to start searching for clues, despite the fact that no one has been able to pinpoint the exact origin of the celebration.

From the 13th to the 15th of February, Romans observed the feast of Lupercalia. This festival was celebrated by the Romans. After the men had finished sacrificing a goat and a dog, they proceeded to beat women with the skins of the animals that they had just killed. The goat and the dog had been executed as a sacrifice.

The Roman romantics were drunk with their happiness. In 2011, Noel Lenski, who is presently a professor of religious studies at Yale University, made the comment to National Public Radio. Lenski is currently a member of the Yale University faculty. Lenski claims that young women would wait in line with the anticipation that they would be hit by the men. They were of the opinion that this would lead to them being pregnant eventually.

There was a lottery for matchmaking that took place at the horrifying party, and young men were given the option to draw the names of women from a jar. Following that, the two individuals would be paired together for the duration of the festival, or even for a longer amount of time if the match looked to be acceptable.

Furthermore, it is probable that the ancient Romans were the ones who came up with the phrase that we use to describe love in the contemporary day. Two persons, both of whom were named Valentine, were executed on February 14 in different years during the third century by Emperor Claudius II. Both of these men were executed with the name Valentine. During the celebration of Saint Valentine's Day, the Catholic Church honored the sacrifices made by these people from the past by paying respect to them.

As time went on, Pope Gelasius I messed things up in the fifth century by combining the ceremonies of Saint Valentine's Day and Lupercalia in an attempt to abolish the pagan customs. This was done in an effort to destroy the pagan traditions. On the other side, the event ended up being more of a theatrical portrayal of what it had been in the past. Lenski offered an additional comment, which may be summarized as follows: "It was a little more of a drunken revel, but the Christians put clothes back on it." It did not prevent it from becoming such despite the fact that it was a day that was associated with love and conception.

Galatin's Day was celebrated by the Normans at around the same period as the other celebrations. In Galatin, the meaning of the word was "lover of women." It is possible that there was a period of time when it was confused with Saint Valentine's Day. This was due, in part, to the fact that the two celebrations had such a similar sound to them.

With the passage of time, the event evolved into a more joyful occasion to celebrate. They portrayed it in a positive light in their writings, and as a consequence, it gained popularity not just in Britain but also across the rest of Europe. This is something both Chaucer and Shakespeare were responsible for. Handcrafted cards made of paper were the tokens of choice throughout the Middle Ages. These cards were made available to the public.

It is believed that the tradition was introduced to the New World at some point in existence. It was at the period of the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century when cards that were manufactured in factories were first introduced. In addition, the year 1913 saw the beginning of the production of Valentines in significant numbers by Hallmark Cards, a firm that was headquartered around Kansas City, Missouri. The month of February has never been the same day since that time began.