Valentine’s Day is a vacation for individuals worldwide to share their love and affection.
However did you ever surprise how the vacation that celebrates love, affection and friendship got here to be?
The origin of Valentine’s Day
Though the origins of the vacation are barely unclear, it could date again to the Roman pageant referred to as Lupercalia, in keeping with Britannica.com, which was a pageant celebrating spring that befell in mid-February and included fertility rites.
Who’s the vacation named after?
There are numerous theories of who the vacation is called after.
Valentine’s Day might have taken its title from a priest martyred by the emperor Claudius II Gothicus in 270 CE, in keeping with Britannica.com. The legend says that the priest despatched his jailer’s daughter a letter signed “from your Valentine.”
One other legend is {that a} bishop, St. Valentine of Terni, is the namesake of the vacation. Whereas yet one more legend tells the story of St. Valentine defying orders from the emperor at the moment and continuing to marry {couples} in secret to spare the husbands from having to go to battle.
The love messages many people await for and cherish, generally referred to as valentines, first appeared within the 1500s, and by the late 1700s commercially printed playing cards sprung up. Nevertheless, it wasn’t till the mid-1800s that the primary industrial valentines within the United States have been printed, in keeping with Britannica.com.
By means of the passage of occasions, the vacation has turn into referred to as one not solely celebrating love, however affection and friendship.
Cupid, love doves and roses
Cupid, the Roman god of affection, is a typical image of the vacation.
Love doves are additionally a typical image as a result of it was thought that the mating season for birds started round mid-February.
Among the many commonest presents in the course of the vacation are sweet and roses, the latter represents magnificence and love.