Feb. 14 annually marks either the most anticipated holiday of the year, or for some, the worst night they can remember since grade-school. So, based on your experiences, wouldn’t you like to thank, or rudely shrug off, whoever created this crazy celebration of candy hearts and flowers?
Whether your answer to that question was negative, positive or indifferent, we decided to do a little research, and find out who this mysterious St. Valentine really is.
Romans Were Weird
According to NPR.org, between Feb. 13-15, the Romans celebrated the feast of Lupercalia. During this celebration, the men would sacrifice a goat, and then, a dog before whipping the backside of women with the slain animals.
These Roman romantics “were drunk” and “naked,” says Noel Lenski, a historian at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Young women would actually line up for their spanking, says Lenski. For some reason, they believed that this behavior would make them fertile.
As if getting spanked on the rear with a hunk of dead animal meat wasn’t festive enough, the Romans also had a matchmaking lottery. In this lottery, young men would draw the names of women from a jar. This couple would then be bound together for the remainder of the festival, and possibly longer, if they actually liked each other.
The Romans may also be the ones to blame for the name of this day of love. Emperor Claudius II killed two men, who were both named Valentine, on Feb. 14 of different years in the third century (A.D.). Their “martyrdom” was then honored by the Catholic Church with the celebration of Valentine’s Day.
Later on, Pope Gelasius I mixed things up in the fifth century and combined St. Valentine’s Day with Lupercalia in order to expel pagan rituals. The festival became a theatrical interpretation of what it once had been. Lenski says, “It was a little more of a drunken revel, but the Christians put clothes back on it.” She says, “That didn’t stop it from being a day of fertility and love.”
Sappy Shakespeare
And then, as time went on, the S&M festival switched to something a little sweeter. Chaucer and Shakespeare romanticized the day in their work, and caused the day to gain popularity throughout Britain and the rest of Europe. In the Middle Ages, handmade paper cards became the “tokens-du-jour.”
This tradition eventually made it to the New World. And in the 19th century the industrial revolution ushered in factory-made cards. And then, Hallmark changed Valentine’s Day forever. In 1913, the Hallmark Cards Company of Kansas City, M.O., began producing vast amounts of valentines.
This is what brings us to this lovely billion-dollar-day. According to market research firm IBIS World, Valentine’s Day sales reached $17.6 billion last year. The company predicts sales to reach up to $18.6 billion this year.
But, there is still hope for all of you cynical Valentine haters! Feb. 14 is also Singles’ Awareness Day! And, no, I am not making this up. Check it out here!