Feb 14 2009
A Potted History of Valentine
This article was inspired by Martin Avis who also has an excellent ebook on how to write articles. Take a look – if you like the article you might like to read the book!
Long before there was a Saint Valentine to spice things up and bring some passion into the season, mid-February was an exciting time for Roman youths. As early as 400 years BC, the Romans took part in a special competition as an act of worship to their god of shepherds, Lupercus. Teenage women had their names put into a box and drawn at random by adolescent men. The ‘winners’ then found themselves legally paired for the next twelve months. Was this a recipe for friendship, lust or love? It did seem popular though!
In the third century AD, the militaristic emperor Claudius II put a stop to marriage for young men — because he took it into his head that single men could fight harder in battle.
A Christian bishop, Valentine, didn’t agree with his Emperor and went against the law, carrying on marrying young people until Claudius found out and first imprisoned him, and finally had him brutally executed on February 14th, 270.
While he was imprisoned, Valentine fell deeply in love with the daughter of his jailer and when he was finally taken to be killed, he wrote her a note which he ended with, ‘From your Valentine.’
Valentine’s story provided a good excuse, and so, the Church, in AD 496, decided to get rid of the annual pairing off lottery run in the name of Lupercus the pagan god and so made some changes of their own to the rules of the event:
Henceforth, both the young men and the young women would randomly choose from the box, but instead of getting a year of companionship (and often lust), they drew the name of a Saint whose character they were obliged emulate over the coming twelve months.
Must have been quite a disappointment for the hot-blooded young Romans!
They named the day after Saint Valentine whose choice, 226 years after his execution, was intended more to displace the traditional god Lupercus than from any honest reverence towards love.
As so often happens, the public’s memory was stronger than new political ideology — particularly when unpopular and Saint Valentine’s name never really stopped being associated with lovers. The young Roman males, deprived of their lottery, began instead giving paper notes to the girls they fancied on February 14th.
And so, our modern love of distributing and receiving Valentines cards and messages was effectively begun over 1500 years ago!
The very first modern-day card that is still in existence is owned by the British Museum. This first proper Valentines card was sent by Charles, Duke of Orleans to his wife in 1415. He was a prisoner in the Tower of London at the time and so his emotions were probably quite heightened!
Five hundred years ago the Bishop of Geneva tried to reinstate the annual ‘live like a saint’ lottery, but unsurprisingly interest was low. February 14th was by then too firmly associated with lovers for the Church to successfully interfere.
In 1797 a British publisher, a man who would have done well in modern times, issued a booklet called ‘The Young Man’s Valentine Writer’ in which were hundreds of pre-written sentimental verses for the creatively challenged.
Anonymous Valentines cards not surprisingly started in Victorian times. Those outwardly straight-laced folks privately adored anything sensual and passionate, but outwardly were obliged to maintain an aura of respectful purity. As a consequence the verses in their cards became really quite filthy, but the authors remained hidden from behind their self-imposed anonymity.
The earliest known of Valentine’s cards in America, Esther Holland set a price of up to $35 for a single card. That was a fortune in 1870!
You’ve also noticed that love messages are traditionally ended with an ‘x’ – this is because in the days before people could generally read and write, it was legally acceptable for a person to draw a cross as their signature. To convey the effect of an oath, people would draw their cross and kiss it — much the same as they would kiss a Bible. Over time the hand-drawn X and the kiss became one and the same.
More recently
May you have a lovely Valentine’s day! X
This article was inspired by Martin Avis of Kickstart Daily – thanks Martin!
