Candy Hearts and Cupid: Valentine's Day

February 14: A day of candied hearts, Cupid's arrows, and bouquets of flowers all in the name of Saint Valentine.

But who was Saint Valentine? History has revealed that there are possibly three priests by the name of Valentine, and further detail on any of them is sketchy at best. However, we do know that Saint Valentine existed, as archaeologists have unearthed the remains of a Roman catacomb and ancient church dedicated to him.

The first representation of St. Valentine appeared in The Nuremberg Chronicle, an illustrated book published in 1493. This book stated that St. Valentine was apprehended for marrying Christian couples and aiding Christians who were being persecuted under Claudius II (when helping Christians was considered a crime). He was arrested, imprisoned, and executed on February 14, about the year 270 C.E.

According to Christianity (specifically, Catholicism), saints do not simply rest in Heaven. Saints are active in the world, performing miracles and interceding in human lives (sort of like the Ancient Greek and Roman gods...). St. Valentine gained his place in the world of holidays when Pope Gelasius I established the feast of Saint Valentine in 496 C.E. Thus, St. Valentine is considered the patron saint of affianced/engaged couples, happy marriages, and love (among other things). He is represented in pictures with birds and roses, and is believed to be able to intercede in affairs of the heart.

Later, in the eighteenth century, Alban Butler and Francis Douce suggested that the obscurity surrounding Saint Valentine's actual identity may be a clue as to what the Catholic Church was really attempting in creating the feast day: superseding the pagan holiday of Lupercalia. Lupercalia was a festival celebrated on February 15 by the ancient Romans. The focal point of the festival was a site on Palatine Hill known as Lupercal, a cave in which the Roman gods Romulus and Remus were suckled by a wolf (a legend dating to the fifth century BCE). Modern archaeology has confirmed that a circle of huts dating to the eight century BCE (circa 753 BCE) existed on the site and was possibly the home of shepherds. This seems probable given that Lupercal is derived from "lupus," a word meaning "wolf" - the most feared predator of sheep. In general, Lupercalia was a purification and fertility rite that involved ritual animal sacrifice (typically goats) and the skin of the animals was then used to lightly flog young women, believing the doing so would promote fertility and easy childbirth (perhaps also due to the vast amount of revelry and drinking for which Roman festivals are famous).

St. Valentine's Day, as we know it today, has its origins in fourteenth-century England. Geoffrey Chaucer and his circle were the first to associate the holiday with romantic love, mainly in Chaucer's Parliament of Foules, a poem which set the fictional context of the traditions. This time period may be the source of the first legends of St. Valentine, that he sent the first "valentine" to a young girl with whom he fell in love during his imprisonment, signing it "From Your Valentine." The oldest known valentine, however, is dated to 1415, written by Charles, Duke of Orleans, to his wife while the was imprisoned in the Tower of London. (Anyone else find it odd that men are only sending valentines while facing death?) This letter is part of the manuscript collection at the British Library.

The fourteenth century is also the high point of courtly love, a medieval European concept of chivalry and the expression of love and admiration. Courtly love began in the courts of Quitaine, Provence, Champagne, and Burgundy at the end of the eleventh century. It was shared between members of the nobility and was kept secret, thus it was generally thought that courtly love was equivalent to "forbidden love" (especially since medieval marriages rarely had anything to do with love). Courtly love was meant to be illicit, morally elevating, passionate, humiliating, and transcendent, among other things: the perfect recipe for an affair. Courtly love adopted the language of feudalism, as men declared themselves vassals or a lady and addressed her as "midons" (meaning "my lord," thus disguising the lady's true name). It was popularized by troubadours and bards in poems and songs. However, "courtly love" was an almost purely psychological affair - rarely, if ever, did courtly love result in physical intimacy.

Shakespeare and John Donne (as well as many others) had used the language of courtly love in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to expand upon Valentine's Day, as seen in Hamlet (Act IV, Scene 5) and Donne's poetry. Perhaps most telling of all was the modern cliche Valentine's poem, published in a book of English nursery rhymes in 1784: "The rose is red, the violet's blue..."

By the eighteenth century, it had become customary for friends and lovers in all social classes to exchange small tokens of affection or handwritten notes on February 14. In the Victorian era, printed cards replaced written letters as a way to express emotions, encouraged both by improvements in printing technology and cheeper postage rates. In the 1840s, Esther A. Howland began to sell the first mass-produced valentines in America.

This practice was extended in the twentieth century to all manners of gifts, especially in the United States. With the advent of consumerism in post-war America, Valentine's Day became a day of gift-giving, from roses and chocolates to diamonds, making Valentine's Day into the modern holiday that most of us know and love.

In Japan, it is customary for women to present chocolates to men. In the 1980s, the Japanese National Confectionary Industry Association launched a campaign that made March 14 a "reply day," where men would return the favor by sending white chocolates to women.

In Mexico, St. Valentine's Day is known as "Dia del Amor y la Amistad." It is celebrated as a day of both love and friendship, so it is common to see people do acts of appreciation for their friends and loved ones rather than simply give gifts.

In Italy, the gift of choice is "Baci Perugina," a small, chocolate-covered hazelnut containing a slip of paper with a romantic note (like a fortune cookie, but chocolate!).

In Israel, August 15 is celebrated as their version of Valentine's Day. Known as Tu B'Av, or the "festival of love," it is customary for people to pronounce love, propose marriage, and give gifts.

In China, which does celebrate Valentine's Day on February 14, the more traditional festival of Qi Qiao Jie is celebrated in August. The "Begging Festival" features girls preparing melons and fruits while praying of finding true love and a good marriage.

What are your Valentine's traditions?