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Valentine’s Day Pagan, Christian, Folkloric, Commercial
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February 2021
n Tuesday, February 14, much of the world, Christian and otherwise, celebrates Valentine’s Day. But what is the story behind this much observed day? The origin of this date is uncertain: It seems to be linked to the pagan tradition of the feast of the Lupercalia, a Roman spring ceremony. On February 14, the sacred marriage between Zeus and Hera took place in Athena, as well as the Roman festival in honor of the fertility god, Lupercus.
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February 13 was the day dedicated to peace, harmony, love, and family. The priests of Lupercus performed a purification ritual involving the sacrifice of goats and the consumption of wine. After the ritual, the priests would go to the streets of Rome with the goatskins touching anyone whom they encountered. Young women took advantage of the opportunity because it was said that by touching the goatskins, they could improve their chances of giving birth to a child. During Lupercalia, girls’ names were collected in boxes and boys extracted them. Then the boys would pair up with the girls whose names they had selected. The pairing was to last all year, but most of the time, the result was just a physical relationship. At another place and time, this day was long ago called Birds’ Wedding Day, mainly by people from the Nordic countries and the British Isles because people imagined that birds chose their mate exactly on February 14.
But what of the well-known Saint Valentine? Information about his life is conflated with the legend. The biographic sources Martyrologium Hieronymianum (5th–6th century A.D.) and Passio Sancti Valentini (8th century A.D.) seem to convey the existence of two saints named Valentine, with the first being a martyr from Rome, and the second being a martyr from Terni. But in recent years, a new hypothesis has been adopted by the scholar Vincenzo Fiocchi Nicolai, which proposes that Valentine from Terni and Valentine from Rome were the same person. Therefore, there was only one Valentinus, Bishop of Terni, who arrived in Rome in 270 A.D. during the Christian persecution by the Roman emperor Claudius II; there he was killed and buried. Valentine was called to Rome by the orator Craton because news of the saint’s work had spread throughout the capital. Craton was impressed with Valentine’s sanctity, charity, and apostolate. He hoped Valentine could heal his son, who had been ill for several years. After the young man was healed, Valentine converted Craton's family to Christianity. In fact, tradition says that the saint united in marriage a Christian girl named Serapia and a Roman centurion. This act contravened Claudius’ edict, which forbade marriage between legionaries and women who belonged to the Christian faith. Due to these events, Valentine was imprisoned and sentenced to be beheaded on
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