History of Valentine’s Day
As every American knows, February 14th is the day set aside for romance and for lovers to express their feelings for each other (or, for single guys like me, it is an excuse to find a bar and commiserate with other single guys). The holiday known as Valentine’s Day has evolved from a rather confusing legend with roots in ancient Rome and the early Catholic Church to a mainstream part of American culture.
There were at least three men whom the Catholic Church anointed the title of Saint Valentine. Valentine of Rome, the man historians know the most about, was martyred around 270 and his remains are interred between Rome and Dublin. The date early martyrdom records give for his death is February 14, as it is with all other Saint Valentines. Apparently, his crime was defiance of the Roman Emperor Claudius II. Claudius II outlawed marriage in the Roman army because he believed single men would make better, less distracted soldiers. Valentine of Rome married these men and their sweethearts in secret. He may have even sent the first valentine himself, a love note to the daughter of the prison keeper.
It is also important to note that many pagan celebrations occurred around the middle of February. According to ancient Greek legend, February was the month when the great god Zeus married Hera. Juno Februa was a pagan celebration between February 13 and February 14. However, the pagan festival that Valentine’s Day is probably derived from is the Roman festival of Lupercalia. Lupercalia, an event that partially included women being slapped with goatskin to improve fertility, happened annually on February 15. This festival was carried over to France and England when the Romans invaded those areas. This was declared illegal by Pope Gelasius in the late fifth century, and, not coincidentally, Gelasius also declared February 14 St. Valentine’s Day. Old pagan traditions were remade into Christian ones, and the holiday was set.
History notes that the first ever Valentine’s Day with romantic implications was in a poem by Geoffrey Chaucer in 1382 for the anniversary of the engagement of King Richard II of England. The oldest valentine that is still in existence was written by the Duke of Orleans to his wife. The Duke was imprisoned in the Tower of London after the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. As the years passed, the tradition grew. King Henry V wrote a valentine to Catherine of Valois several years later. William Shakespeare had one of his characters mourn the arrival of St. Valentine’s Day in Hamlet. By the eighteenth century, many English men were giving valentines to their wives or women they were courting. The thirteen American colonies, who wanted to do everything the way the British did, imported the holiday. The holiday really took off with Esther A. Howland, who began to mass-produce valentines in the 1850’s. She was so successful that the Greeting Card Association has named their annual award after her! The rest, to borrow the cliché, is history.
When I was given this assignment, I thought that it was going to be extremely difficult. JSTOR has the answers to everything, how could we not even verify our answers through it? In reality, though, it didn’t turn out to be so bad. I simply googled “History of Valentine’s Day” and ran with it (I didn’t put the search in quotes, I just wanted to let the reader know what my exact search was). Lots of sites popped up, many more than I would have expected. I started reading, and went from there.
My only fear of doing research this way is the credibility issue. Many of these websites do not cite anything; how can I know the information I am getting is accurate? One was to semi-circumvent this was to go to many websites. I probably read twelve websites before I wrote anything down. When the sites continually mentioned the same information, I went with it. Anything I only came across once in research I decided was unreliable, and did not use. I also tried to steer away from sites that looked like they had a second agenda. For example, I came across several sites with counters to the next Valentine’s Day, which is 362 days away at the time of this writing. Other sites wanted to sell me flowers, or were done in pink and red with a cutesy type font. While these sites obviously serve their purpose, I didn’t feel that they were appropriate for doing professional research, so I didn’t use them.
All in all, this was certainly a different way to do research. I think that this style has its merits, but in writing serious historical papers I think that the main usage of the internet is to use more credible sites.
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