How February 14th become Valentine's Day

February 14th of every year is being celebrated as Valentines day or St Valentine’s day

I have seen people sending cards, gifts, messages to their loved ones or other close people, as a way of expressing their affection towards them.

So let see why this day is being called  Valentine's day or, St Valentine’s day, and who was St Valentine.

As St Patricks Day got that name after a foremost patron saint of Ireland, February 14th of every year got that name after a famous saint called St. Valentine from Rome. If we are ready to dig deeper in to the history of Valentine's day, you will find a lot of stories about Valentine's Day.

"The most widely accepted knowledge is that St. Valentine was a third century AD Roman priest"

Claudius Gothicus, also known as Claudius II was a Roman emperor who ruled from 268 AD to 270 AD. It was his strong belief that a married man can never be a good fine soldier. It is believed that St Valentine decided to help these people who wants to marry and have a family, but at the same time desired to continue in the royal army. So St Valentine, the priest took a brave step to let these people to marry in a secret manner. But as the history mentions, Claudius II came to know about this secret marriages, and he found out it was St Valentine who helped these men, he threw him to jail and put a death sentence over St Valentine.

Here comes the interesting but tragic part of the history.

St Valentine’s execution was decided for a February 14th. But as things turned out, St Valentine fell in love with the jail warden's daughter and before he was taken for execution by the guards, he wrote her a love letter signing “from Your Valentine".

Now when and how did February 14th was started to be treated as Valentine’s day.

Believed to be originated as a part of Roman festivals, Valentine’s day is a very old tradition.

The Romans welcomed the Spring season in the middle of February by celebrating a festival called Lupercalia. Lupercalia was a really interesting festival where the boys are allowed pick a name of a girl from a box. The girl so picked is considered as his girlfriend for the rest of the festival, and maybe they get married in time. After a long time, the Catholic church wanted to treat Lupercalia as a Christian festival. Hence they decided to celebrate Lupercalia also to remember St Valentine,  the old Roman priest. Hence slowly, in order to show their love, send gifts like Bird of paradise flowers and express their care to their close ones, people started to use the name of St Valentine.

So that’s how February 14th came to be known as St Valentine's or Valentines day.

"I wish everyone a beautiful and lovely Valentine’s day on this February 14th. Do spend some good time with your loved ones ❤"

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