00:08Ever wonder why we go all out with hearts, chocolates, and flowers every February 14th?
00:14The story of Valentine's Day is way more dramatic and fascinating than you might think.
00:19It's a wild mix of ancient rituals, brave saints, and poetic love stories.
00:26So, before you send that happy V-Day text, let's travel back in time and uncover the real history behind
00:34this day of love.
00:36Our journey begins long before the first Valentine's card was ever sent in ancient Rome.
00:43From February 13th to the 5th 10th, the Romans celebrated a festival called...
00:48This wasn't your typical romantic getaway!
00:50It was a wild, intense, fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the god of agriculture, and the founders of Romulus and
01:00Remus.
01:02The festival involved animal sacrifices, and one of its most famous rituals involved priests running through the city, gently slapping
01:11women with strips of goat hide.
01:13It was believed this would make them more fertile in the coming year.
01:16Another part of the festival involved a sort of matchmaking lottery.
01:21Young men would draw the names of women from a jar, and the pair would be coupled up for the
01:25duration of the festival, and sometimes even longer.
01:29Lupercalia was all about fertility, purification, and celebrating the start of spring.
01:35It was loud, chaotic, and very, very different from the Valentine's Day we know today.
01:44So, how did we get from this rowdy Roman festival to a day named after a saint?
01:49This is where the story gets a bit mysterious, because there wasn't just one Saint Valentine.
01:55There were actually several early Christian martyrs named Valentine, and the legends surrounding them have become tangled over the centuries.
02:04The most popular and romantic story is about a priest named Valentine who lived in Rome during the third century.
02:14The emperor at the time, Claudius II, had a big problem.
02:18He needed more soldiers for his army, but he believed that married men were too attached to their wives and
02:25families to be good, focused warriors.
02:29So, he did something drastic. He outlawed marriage for all young men.
02:34He wanted a dedicated single army.
02:38But Valentine, a true romantic and a man of faith, thought this decree was incredibly unjust.
02:45He believed in the power of love and the sanctity of marriage.
02:50So, in secret, he defied the emperor as orders and continued to perform marriages for young couples who were deeply
03:00in love.
03:00He became a symbol of hope for lovers across Rome.
03:04Well, secrets like that don't stay secret for long.
03:08Eventually, Emperor Claudius found out about Valentine's clandestine weddings.
03:13He had Valentine arrested and thrown in prison.
03:17The story goes that while he was imprisoned, Valentine befriended the jailer's daughter.
03:23Some versions of the tale say he even miraculously healed her from blindness.
03:29Before he was executed, he wrote her a final letter, a farewell note of friendship and faith.
03:35He signed it with the words that have echoed through history, from your Valentine.
03:40He was executed on February 14th, around the year 269 A.D.
03:48This act of defiance and compassion is the most enduring legend of St. Valentine, painting him as a heroic, romantic
03:57figure who died for the cause of love.
04:00It's a powerful story, and it laid the foundation for the holiday we celebrate today.
04:06But how did this specific day, February 14th, become so significant?
04:12For that, we need to look at how the early Christian church dealt with popular pagan traditions.
04:18By the end of the 5th century, the Roman Empire had become Christianized, and the church was actively trying to
04:25replace pagan festivals with Christian feast days.
04:29The wild festivities of Lupercalia were seen as unchristian and needed to go.
04:34In 496 A.D., Pope Gillesius I made a clever move.
04:39He officially declared February 14th as St. Valentine's Day, a feast day to honor the martyr St. Valentine.
04:47By placing a Christian holiday right in the middle of the old Lupercalia festival, he effectively co-opted the date.
04:55While some historians debate how direct this connection was,
05:00it's clear that the church wanted to provide a Christian alternative to the pagan celebration.
05:07The focus slowly began to shift from a public fertility festival to a day honoring a Christian saint.
05:13For a long time, St. Valentine's Day was just another saint's day on the calendar.
05:18The romantic aspect we know and love didn't really kick in until the Middle Ages.
05:23This was the era of courtly love, knights, and chivalry.
05:28A fascinating belief started to spread across Europe, particularly in England and France.
05:35People believed that February 14th was the day that birds began to choose their mates for the season.
05:42You can imagine poets and romantics getting inspired by the sight of birds pairing up as spring approached.
05:49This idea was popularized by one of the greatest writers in English history, Geoffrey Chaucer.
05:55In his 1382 poet Parliament of Fowls, he wrote about a gathering of birds on St. Valentine's Day to choose
06:04their partners.
06:05This is one of the first ever written records linking Valentine's Day with romantic love.
06:09After Chaucer, other poets and writers started associating the day with romance, and it became a popular theme in literature.
06:18Lovers began to see February 14th as a special day to express their feelings inspired by the birds and the
06:25stories of courtly love.
06:27The tradition of expressing love on Valentine's Day really took off.
06:32By the 5th-10th century, we see the first actual Valentine's greeting.
06:37The earliest surviving Valentine was a poem written in 1415 by Charles, Duke of Orleans.
06:42He was captured during the Battle of Agincourt and imprisoned in the Tower of London.
06:48From a cell, he wrote a poem to his wife, calling her his very gentle Valentine.
06:55It's a poignant and beautiful piece of history, showing that even in the darkest of times, people found a way
07:02to express their love.
07:03As we move into the 18th and 19th centuries, the tradition of exchanging love notes became more and more common.
07:09People would pour their hearts out in handwritten letters, often decorated with romantic symbols like hearts, flowers, and Cupid.
07:20These were personal, heartfelt creations.
07:25But then, the Industrial Revolution changed everything!
07:28With advancements in printing technology, it became possible to mass-produce cards.
07:33In the 1840s, the first commercial Valentine's cards started appearing in England and the United States.
07:40A woman named Esther Howland, known as the mother of the American Valentine, was a pioneer in this industry.
07:49She created elaborate cards with real lace, ribbons, and colorful pictures.
07:54They were a huge hit, and suddenly, sending a Valentine's card became a widespread tradition.
08:01It was no longer just for the wealthy or the poetic!
08:05Everyone could participate!
08:07And that brings us to the Valentine's Day we know today!
08:12What started as a chaotic Roman festival transformed into a martyr's feast day.
08:19And then evolved into a day of courtly love has now become a global phenomenon!
08:25It's a day for celebrating all kinds of love!
08:28Of course!
08:29There's the romantic love between partners!
08:32Which is why we see so many dinner reservations and proposals on February 14th,
08:37but it's also expanded to celebrate friendship and family.
08:41Think of Galantini's Day, where friends celebrate their bond,
08:45or children exchanging Valentine's cards with their classmates at school!
08:49It's become a day to show appreciation for all the important people in our lives!
08:54From exchanging gifts like flowers and chocolates, to simply spending quality time together.
09:00People around the world have adapted Valentine's Day to fit their own cultures and relationships.
09:06It's a testament to the universal and enduring power of love.
09:11So the next time you see a heart-shaped box of chocolates, you I know that!
09:14It's part of a story that stretches back thousands of years!
09:18A story of ancient gods!
09:19A rebellious priest, medieval poet, and the simple timeless desire to say,
09:25I love you!
09:26Thank you so much for joining me on this journey through the history of Valentine's Day!
09:31If you found this as fascinating as I did, make sure to hit that like button,
09:37and subscribe for more deep dives into the stories behind our traditions!
09:41What are your Valentine's Day plans?
09:44Let me know in the comments below!
09:46See you next time!
09:48Bye!
