How long has valentines been celebrated

Whether or not Chaucer can be fully credited, it is true that he and fellow writer Shakespeare popularized the amorous associations surrounding the day. Soon, people began penning and exchanging love letters to celebrate Valentine's Day, and by the early s, an American company that would one day become Hallmark began distributing its more official "Valentine's Day cards.

It's not all about St. Cupid—that winged baby boy often seen on Valentine's Day cards and paraphernalia—is another symbol of this love-filled holiday, and it's easy to understand why.

In Roman mythology, Cupid was the son of Venus, goddess of love and beauty. He was known for shooting arrows at both gods and humans, causing them to fall instantly in love with one another. While it's unclear exactly when Cupid was brought into the Valentine's Day story, it's certainly clear why.

Country Life. Design Ideas. Home Maintenance. Country Living Shop. Shopping Guides. United States. On February 14, more than any other day of the year, romantic couples shower their better half with gifts and tokens of appreciation. The handwritten cards, chocolate hearts , and red roses are all staples of the annual tradition, recognized easily at any convenience store. However, much about how the holiday came to be remains a mystery, details lost to time and transformed as romantics retold history.

Not only does this holiday have competing origin stories, but there are at least two different saints who might be its namesake. Here's what we actually know about Valentine's Day. Occurring for centuries in the middle of February, the holiday celebrates fertility. Men would strip naked and sacrifice a goat and dog.

Young boys would then take strips of hide from the sacrificed animals and use it to whip young women, to promote fertility. Lupercalia was popular and one of the few pagan holidays still celebrated years after Christianity was legalized in the Roman Empire. When Pope Gelasius came to power in the late fifth century he put an end to Lupercalia.

Soon after, the Catholic church declared February 14 to be a day of feasts to celebrate the martyred Saint Valentine. According to Noel Lenski , a historian at the University of Colorado at Boulder, Lupercalia was "clearly a very popular thing, even in an environment where the Christians are trying to close it down.

Jack B. By some estimations there are over 10, saints , of which there are more than 30 Valentines and even a few Valentinas.

Two Valentines stand out as likely candidates for the namesake saint, but neither dealt with matters of the heart. The two Valentines share many similarities, leading some researchers to wonder whether they were the same man.

Getty Images. This is the oldest known Valentine's Day message in English. It was written in Oops you can't see this activity! These penguins in California have been known to get into the spirit of Valentine's Day. Top Stories. At the end of the 5th century, Pope Gelasius declared February 14 St.

Valentine's Day, and since then, February 14 has been a day of celebration religious or romantic. Valentine's Day is a fixed day on the calendar, and the ancient Roman calendar included a mid-February holiday even before St. Valentine's time. That holiday arguably the origin of Valentine's Day , called Lupercalia, celebrated fertility, and may have included a ritual in which men and women were paired off by choosing names from a jar.

In Ancient Greece, people observed a mid-winter celebration for the marriage of the god Zeus and the goddess Hera. Some historians wonder if these traditions may have influenced the way we now celebrate February Not much, it turns out. Saint Valentine's Day was a feast day in the Catholic religion, added to the liturgical calendar around AD.

Thanks, Pope Gelasius! The day was commemorated for martyred saints named—you guessed it—Valentine.