Since February’s cold winters in this country are incompatible with growing roses, approximately a quarter of a million roses are grown worldwide and shipped here for Valentine’s Day to fulfill consumers’ demands.
We also buy over 145 million cards, not including children’s little Valentine cards.
People spend billions of dollars annually celebrating Saint Valentine’s Day, even though we will never know how this holiday transpired. We only know that in 1969, the Roman Catholic Church removed Valentine’s Day from its list of holidays.
Multiple St. Valentines and different versions of this mysterious holiday’s evolution exist. Some believe St. Valentine’s Day began from the Pagan, Roman, “Lupercalia Fertility Festival.”
Others attributed it to Juno Day, the Queen Goddess of women and fertility. Both events were month-long celebrations where young maidens wrote their names on paper and placed them in a jar.
Men then picked their evening’s mate from the jar. This love partnering could last up to a year and sometimes lead to marriage.
Pope Gelasius however, banned the festival (494-96) although he retained the lottery and replaced the women’s names with Saints. Once picked, men and women had to live up to their chosen saints’ attributes for an entire year.
As time progressed, more and more Romans strayed from this custom. Instead, young men wrote notes to the girls of their choosing. It became a tradition to give the beloved a handwritten message of enamored and romantic intention, containing St. Valentine’s name inscribed within.
The most popular lore comes from the third century in Rome when a humble Christian martyr, Priest Valentinus, defied an oppressive Emperor Claudius II, who believed that young men without emotional anchors made better soldiers.
He banned marriages for soldiers and Valentine’s Day to keep their minds on war instead of wives. Priest Valentinus thought this to be wrong. He continued to wed young couples secretly.
Enraged, Emperor Claudius II imprisoned the priest. While in jail, lovers slipped flowers and notes into his cell, thanking him for his loving service.
Legend states that on the day he died, February 14, Valentine left a note for one of his many supporters, thanking her for being there for him. He signed it, “Love from your Valentine.”
