Valentine’s Day has a rich history from the story that caused it to the reason for the exact date.

There are two common stories of Valentine’s Day.

One famous story was believed that Valentine was a priest who lived during the third century in Rome.At the time, Emperor Claudius II believed that single men made better soldiers in comparison to those with families and children. Claudius banned marriage for young men in order to obtain the army he wanted.Valentine was believed to have continued marriages for young men in secret.When Claudius discovered the secret marriages he ordered for Valentine to be put to death.

Another common legend is that Valentine was a man killed for helping Christians escape harsh Roman prisons.According to the legend, it was believed during his prison sentence he sent the first valentine.Many believed that he fell in love with a young girl, believed to have been his jailer’s daughter. She had visited him during his confinement leading to him writing her one last letter and signing it as ‘your valentine,’ creating today’s expression.

The reason for Valentine’s date as well has many different beliefs in origin.

One common story is that the reason for valentines to be placed in the middle of February was to memorialize the death or burial of Valentine.

Others stories credit the Christian church. They believed ‘Valentine’s Feast’ was set on the fourteenth to Christianize the Pagan celebration of Lupercalia.

The celebration of Lupercalia is a festival promoting health and fertility.

The festival is celebrated with members of Luperci, an order of Roman priests, assembling at the sacred cave believed to be where the infants Romulus and Remus, founders of Rome, were cared for by a she-wolf or lupa. 

The gathering would mean the sacrifice of a goat, for fertility, and a dog for purification. The hide of the goat would be dipped into the sacrificial blood and taken to the streets of Rome.The reason for it to be taken to the streets of Rome was that women would be touched by the hide in the belief that it would make them more fertile in the coming year.The hide would also be taken through crops to bring prospering crops in the next year. Within the festival towards the end of the day all the young women in the city would place their name in a big urn for the city bachelors to each choose a name. They would be paired for the next year, many of the matches were said to have ended in marriage.