Presented by: Susan Celano
Every year on February 14th, millions of people celebrate the holiday known as Valentine’s Day.
This looks like a lot of different things in many households, but one thing is sure; there is usually lots of hearts, lots of candy, perhaps some flowers , and lots of cards!
Valentine’s day wasn’t always so heart-candy-flower filled. In fact, the origin of it is actually a little heart-breaking to be honest!
It’s true that Valentine’s Day is a favorite for many Americans when it comes to holiday celebrations, but if you look at how it all started; it might be a little down-in-the dumps for you!
Let’s start at the beginning. The origins of Valentine’s Day can be found in Ancient Roman Times. Romans celebrated with a festival called “Lupercalia”. Many years later, the Christian church chose mid-February to celebrate a day called “St. Valentine’s Day”.
Because the Roman festival Lupercalia was held about the same time, the Church chose this time to try and persuade those party-goers at the Lupercalia festival to come to the church celebration instead.
Okay, so it was a party? What’s the big deal? There are lots of parties.
Well, we have to first look at who Saint Valentine was. In all honesty, there is not a lot known about the guy. In fact, there were possibly three different men named Saint Valentine in Church history.
One of these men was a priest who defied an emperor named Cladius who had banned marriage. Saint Valentine continued to marry couples against the emperor’s order. Ultimately earning Saint Valentine the death penalty!
In the late 400’s a pope named Pope Gelasius decided that Saint Valentine needed to be honored because he felt Valentine had acted bravely. The pope declared February 14th as “Valentine’s Day” in memory of Saint Valentine.
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