Valentine history

 

According to most sources the origin of Valentines day goes back to the 3rd century AD. In Rome lived a priest called Valentinus. He was known for doing good deeds. He helped the sick, the poor and the elderly.
Valentinus cured the stepdaughter of Asterius, who was blind.

 

Asterius gratefully converted to christianity and released all christian prisoners. As a result emperor Claudius II had Valentinus beheaded on february the 14th of 270. Some sources claim he was beheaded for letting young couples get married in secret, something the emperor had strictly forbidden.

 

Another explanation for the origin of Valentine's day is that birds start mating around the 14th of february.
In the 14th century Geoffrey Chaucer wrote:
"for this was on seynt valentynes day, whan every fool cometh her to chese his mate".
The desire to mate was thought to begin around february 14.

 

There are sources who say Valentine's day originates from the Roman Lupercalia celebration. Lupercalia was celebrated on february 15 in honour of Lupercus, the roman god of virtility. It was an important roman celebration. It would have been most certainly be held in the proximaty of the caves where Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, were raised bij wolves.

 

According to the story, the names of young single women were put in an large bowl. Single men than took turns and picked out a name from the bowl. During the celebration, they would be each others mate. With the rise of christianity in Europe, the pagan celebration was forbidden by the church and later replaced by valentine's day. A fact is that the english have introduced Valentine's day to the United States, where commerce picked up on the tradition. After that Valentine's day also became a popular celebration in many European countries.