February the Fourteenth has been a day to give love to others in the name of Saint Valentine. But who is he? Is Valentine’s a religious holiday…or Pagan all the way? Where did chocolate come in? Who’s Cupid? Why are the Victorians still the most flamboyant figures in history? Did humans simply make up an excuse to write more letters, eat more sweets, water more flowers and give more love? I’d like to think so.
The Man, the Myth, the Legend
In the third century, an Emperor by the name of Claudius the Second decided that men with wives and families did not make as effective soldiers as single men, and outlawed marriage for young men. Valentine, a priest, found this decree unjust and continued to perform marriage ceremonies for young lovers. Alternate records suggest that Valentine was smuggling Christian prisoners out of cruel Roman prisons. Valentine was soon discovered and Claudius put him to death on February 14th.
Myths and word of mouth have altered the stories over time. So, Valentine is said to have sent the first “valentine” note to someone else—whether he did this while imprisoned awaiting his execution or the last day of his life (the latter is definitely more roguish and romantic), is unknown. He wrote a letter to a young girl he had fallen in love with, some speculate her to be the jailor’s daughter who paid him visits while imprisoned. He signed it “from your Valentine”, the beginning of a tradition of living for light years after them. From this, it is clear the appeal Valentine must have had as a sympathetic, romantic figure in the Middle Ages.
However, scholars argue that the true man is Saint Valentine, a Terni bishop, who was known to perform miracles and who was also beheaded by Claudius the Second on the same day…I must wonder whether Shakespeare drew inspiration from this guy for Hamlet’s Claudius.
Now, two common theories still live in the average historian’s psyche; that the holiday was named after these two benevolent figures as they were executed on the same day, or that they were the same man whose historical details have blurred.
Lupercalia – the Pagan Celebration
The tale of the two Valentine men has been also speculated to be the way that the Church was trying to rewrite and “Christianise” the tradition that the Paganists had been performing since the 6th century B.C.
Lupercalia, celebrated February 13th to 15th, was a fertility festival performed for Roman founders, Remus and Romulus and for the Roman god of agriculture, Faunus. The order of Roman priests called the Luperci would gather in a cave where it was believed Romulus and Remus were cared for by a she-wolf. The priests would sacrifice both a goat for fertility and a dog for purification. After they stripped the goat, they would slap women with the goat hide. This was not regarded as an abusive or painful tradition. In fact, women wished to be touched by the hide for the belief that it would grant them fertility. Later, all women would place their names in an urn, and the bachelor men would select a name to be paired with, often ending in matrimony.
At the end of the fifth century, a pope by the name of Gelasius declared Lupercalia as “un-Christian” and officially named February 14th as St. Valentine’s Day.
Cupid and his Arrows
The Roman god Cupid’s roots come from Greek mythology as the god Eros who is the god of love and matchmaking. According to Greek poets of the Archaic period, Eros was known as an immortal who toyed with the emotions of Gods and men alike, shooting golden gilded arrows to incite love, and leaden arrows to sow disinterest.
Cupid started to be associated with romantic art and seduction in Renaissance art. In fact, Cupid’s chubby cherub disposition was evolving during this period. One notable example of cherub Cupid is Botticelli’s Allegory of Spring, which is better known by its Italian name La Primavera. Above the harem of men and women, Cupid is depicted as blindfolded, shooting his arrow, directly positioned above Venus.
The Victorian Seal on Valentine’s Day
Geoffrey Chaucer of the Middle Ages was the first to frame St. Valentine’s Day as a celebration for romance in literature. In his poem “Parliament of Fowls” (1375), he wrote, “For this was sent on Seynt Valentyne’s day / Whan every foul cometh ther to choose his mate.” But the association of Valentine’s and romance was entrenched by the Victorians.
Their strong influence on Valentine’s Day culture should not be surprising. After all, the monarch Queen Victoria was deeply in love with her Prince Albert. She wrote love letters and poetry to him, and their 1840 wedding influenced the tradition of white wedding dresses and bridal bouquets. After his death, she mourned for the rest of her life in black clothing. She is the mother of the Victorian penchant for lifelong devotion and dramatics.
The Victorians were frivolous and flamboyant, especially with their precious printing press and cheap postages. Valentine’s cards were paper sheets printed with illustrations, lace-trim and garlanded borders. Some also assembled them from scratch with unorthodox materials like bows and ribbons, seashells, mirror bits, silk flowers, hid messages in flaps and called them “puzzle purses”, and printed mottos like “Devotion” or the classic candy heart saying, “Be Mine.” Inside these cards, there was even romantic poetry. The number of cards delivered was at such a high volume that postmen were allowed special refreshments to compensate for their exertion. During this time, about half of these cards were “Vinegar Valentines.” “Vinegar Valentines” were rude, sarcastic cards sent to reject persistent suitors and/or mock an individual. Inside of these vinegar cards, were caricatures of spinsters or drunks. These Anti-Valentines were a creative way to reject someone without confronting them. But they sometimes got out of hand…suffragettes and leaders of social justice movements would receive these cards in bulk. Sometimes they got violent; the Pall Mall Gazette in 1885 published a story about a husband who shot his estranged wife, after she sent him a vinegar valentine.
As sticklers for symbolism, Victorians also incorporated flower language, called “Floriography” into Valentines. Red roses for ‘passion’ and ‘deep love’, Forget Me Nots represented ‘true love’ and ‘reembraces’. Violets represented ‘modesty’ and ‘faithfulness’. For queer women of the time, violets were also sapphic signifiers. Finally, yellow roses captured jealousy. Arrangements, as to this day, were cultivated to send hidden messages, especially in a period where outward professions of love were not considered natural. And Oscar Wilde, your gay green carnation will always be famous.
Valentine’s Day commercialism and capitalism were also on the rise, with American Esther Howland beginning to mass produce fancy Victorian aesthetics. Furthermore, the rise of Love Tokens and gift-giving appeared in the form of lockets with portraits or locks of hair, embroidered kerchiefs and brooches…
Chocolate Kisses and Cadbury Boxes
Chocolate has been considered an aphrodisiacal substance for centuries and over civilizations for the smooth, rich, indulgent melt-in-your-mouth feeling it has. Chocolate also releases the chemical phenylethylamine, which mimics the brain’s response to falling in love…
In 1847, J.S. Fry and Sons created the first solid chocolate bar, making it more affordable. Roughly two decades later, Daniel Peter and Henri Nestlé invented milk chocolate. Then came along Richard Cadbury, who as a product of Queen Victoria’s lovesick rule, created the first decorated heart-shaped chocolate boxes, capitalizing on the growing market and appealing to the Victorian love of ornamentation, often including sentimental designs and dynamic designs like those found on the Victorian cards. The boxes were advertised as mementos to keep love tokens in after the sweet treats were eaten. These boxes cemented Cadbury’s popularity, are now family heirlooms for some, and remain a rich aspect of the chocolate brand’s legacy.
Valentine’s Day is a celebration with complicated beginnings, the print of Christianisation, and the rise of commercialism, but can still be summed up and sealed as a celebration of love, of all kinds, romantic, familial, and platonic. Humans love ornament, poetry, chocolate, flower arrangements and feeling loved, even still.
References
Five Minute History. (2017, February 8). Valentine’s Day in the Victorian era. Five Minute History. Retrieved February 7, 2025, from https://fiveminutehistory.com/valentines-day-in-the-victorian-era/
History.com Editors. (n.d.). History of Valentine’s Day. History. Retrieved February 7, 2025, from https://www.history.com/topics/valentines-day/history-of-valentines-day-2
Pruitt, S. (2019, February 12). Why Victorian Valentine’s Day cards could be mean and even vulgar. History. Retrieved February 7, 2025, from https://www.history.com/news/victorian-valentines-day-cards-vinegar
Waxman, O. B. (2018, February 13). How chocolate and Valentine’s Day became a match made in marketing heaven. History. Retrieved February 7, 2025, from https://www.history.com/news/valentines-day-chocolate-box-history-cadbury