Valentine’s Day - origin stories

Sketch for Copper Valentine (2021)

Despite a Catholic upbringing, i had no idea where Valentine’s Day came from. But this year I fell down a Google-hole and came across an account in National Geographic that outlines a whole host of different origin stories.

One version of the origin story has a pagan festival morphing into Valentine’s day: Up to the 5th century, Lupercalia was a celebration of fertility that took place in mid-February. “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.”

(Doesn’t sound like my idea of a good Valentine’s day….)

Or there is an alternative history that says it all came from Chaucer, who linked Valentine’s Day to romance more or less by chance in his poem The Parlement of Foules in the 14th century - because mid-February is approximately the time when European birds start mating.

Perhaps the mystery would be solved if we looked at who the original St Valentine was?

But apparently among the nearly 11,000 saints, over 30 are called Valentine. There are two top contenders: both were priests who performed healing miracles, and were executed for refusing to convert to paganism. And both are said to have died on 14 February. None of which is particularly romantic.

And the cards?

“The first Valentine's Day card dates to 1415 when the Duke of Orléans sent a card to his wife while he was he was a prisoner in the Tower of London.”

Well it’s a bit grisly, but at least there’s an element of romance there.

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone.

(Here’s the 2019 National Geographic article for the full story)