Contents
Valentine's Day is a holiday of Christian origin that is celebrated annually on February 14 as a commemoration of the good works carried out by Saint Valentine of Rome, which are related to the universal concept of love and affection.
It is currently a festival known as a cultural event related to the feelings of love and friendship, regardless of the religion professed or without necessarily belonging to one.
The main legend on which the festival of Saint Valentine is based was that he married soldiers with their ladies in the cellars of the prisons of the Roman Empire at the time when Christianity was prohibited by Claudius II.
Upon finding out about the marriage vows that the saint was making, he ordered to capture him and bring him before him so that he could excuse himself; Apparently, Claudio had no other intention than just to reprimand him and expel him from the country, but due to the influence of other high officials he ordered Saint Valentine's beheaded.
In the Gregorian calendar, the Catholic Church with Pope Gelasius I, chose the noble life of Valentine to represent love between humans with the date February 14.
The first Valentine's Day was celebrated on February 14, 494.
The holiday was official in the Catholic Church until Pope Paul IV stopped celebrating it and finally in 1969 during the Second Vatican Council the holiday was eliminated from the liturgical calendar.
In the Middle Ages, Valentine's Day symbolized courtly love where the feeling of affection was expressed in a sincere and noble way, with poetic and romantic statements making references to the heart and flowers.
Today the festival reaches places where Christianity is not practiced and where Western customs are not even present.
In 1416, the French duke, Charles of Orleans, after having been captured at the Battle of Azincourt and imprisoned in the Tower of London, wrote a Valentine's letter to his wife Bonne de Armagnac. This letter is currently the oldest Valentine's letter in existence.
From the 15th century onwards, the celebration of Valentine's Day as a day of lovers became popular in France and Great Britain. As time went by, this holiday became fashionable in other parts of Europe such as Germany and Italy. Also, starting in the 15th century, it became customary to write poems or Valentines between lovers.
