The winter holiday lights feel like a dream and a half away in the February freeze. And for real, I think it’s high time we space out the holidays evenly. Autumn already has too much going on, with Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas happening back to back. Where’s the major American August holiday, huh? When I was little, I thought this was surely why Valentine’s Day was where it was – to fill up space during the miserable time between Christmas and spring.
Alas, no, there is some history behind the acclaimed capitalist fantasy of plastic roses, eerie talking teddy bears, and those oddly addictive candy hearts that always keep randomly appearing in my backpack. And it all starts with the Romans, all the way back in the third century.
You can thank (not thank?) Emperor Claudius the Second for killing Saint Valentine some year on February 14, and then another Saint Valentine a different year on February 14. What are the odds, honestly? Of course, it is disputed whether one or two saints were murdered, but it’s interesting to think that there were two of them, one killed on the other’s death anniversary.
It was only in the eighth century when the “Feast of Saint Valentine” was first recorded. However, the feast was already established by Pope Gelasius I in the fifth century. By the fifteenth century, Europeans started associating the holiday with romance. Shakespeare helped push this narrative of sweet love through his works (maybe you’ve heard of them). Even the famous line “roses are red” can be traced back to the sixteenth century:
“She bath’d with roses red, and violets blew, And all the sweetest flowres [sic], that in the forrest grew.”
Fast forward, and now, every CVS and Safeway has shiny pink and red packaging glistening in that one forbidden aisle.
Unless that isn’t the whole story…
See, before the murder of the two saints, Roman pagans also celebrated a holiday from February 13 to 15. Lupercalia, as the festival was called, celebrated fertility and good health, not romance. Many have argued for the link between Lupercalia and Valentine’s Day, but so far, no concrete evidence has been found. It’s an interesting rabbit hole to jump into this weekend, when you should be studying for midterms.
So, if the thought of Valentine’s Day leaves a bad taste in your mouth, then perhaps turn it into a time to love yourself and your health.
xoxo