The history of Valentine's Day

I realised I have no idea where Valentine’s Day comes from. So, I did some research, and it turns out there’s actually a few possible ways that Valentine’s Day could have originated.  

Firstly, it could have its origins in the ancient Roman festival called Lupercalia which took place on the 15th of February and was all about fertility. This festival was pretty wild - there was feasting, partners being paired off by a lottery, and probably wildest of all, goats would be sacrificed, and then priests would take the hides of these goats and slap women with them to make them fertile.  

Around the end of the 5th century, Pope Gelasius decided it was time to put an end to this festival, likely wanting to make a celebration that was Christian instead. Soon after he cancelled Lupercalia, he announced that February 14 would be a day that would mark the death of St. Valentine.  

There were actually two different men, both called St. Valentine, who were executed on February 14th, a couple hundred years prior. So it’s not really clear which St Valentine the holiday was celebrating, but it was pretty much just another day of feasting.  

But none of this really explains how Valentine’s Day shifted from a fertility festival, to a celebration of saintly martyrdom, to a day associated with romance.  

Apparently, we can credit the association to English poet Geoffrey Chaucer, who wrote a poem called The Parliament of Fowls. 

This poem was very long (around 700 lines) but one of the things that he wrote in it was, ‘for this was on Saint Valentine’s day, when every fowl comes there his mate to take’. Essentially this is about birds choosing their mates on Valentine’s Day.  

From here, this idea was adopted by other poets, including Shakespeare, creating the romantic Valentine’s Day that we know today.  

However it came to be, celebrate it your way - but maybe leave the goats out of it!