Valentine's Day Customs and Traditions

Valentine’s Day may be a Christian holiday, but many of its customs actually are derivatives of an old Roman holiday called Lupercalia, which was celebrated on almost the same day in the middle of February (Lupercalia was celebrated on the 15th, whereas Valentine’s Day is recognized on the 14th).  It was a time of grand festivities between couples, friends and companions, and celebrated the Roman god Lupercus – which we can guess, from the modern meaning of the word Lupine, was somehow involved with wolves – which stood guard over all of Rome and protected them from evil wolves.  Further still, Valentine’s Day shows some parallels with another myth courtesy of ancient Rome: a holiday for the goddess Juno (also known as the Greek goddess Hera, wife of Zeus).  It is from this latter myth that the tradition of young men drawing the names of young women from a bowl came, where they would choose companions that they would often eventually marry.

The Valentine’s Day tradition involving the goddess Juno became very popular, and has been passed down largely intact.  Even as long ago as middle-century England, young ladies were performing a variation of the theme of boys-picking-up-girls’-names from a cup, by instead placing the names of boys in a buoyant ball and making it temporarily sink to the bottom of basin or bowl.  The first name to rise would be the one that was special, and one can imagine she did many things to get his attention!  In nearby Italy, they were a bit more practical.  Young men and women would gather together for a day of singing and talking in a lush garden on February 14th; some of them would understandably fall in love, and history would be written.

Yet another contribution to the host of origin stories surrounding Valentine’s Day is the tale of a Christian priest named Valentine, who lived several hundred year ago.  One incarnation of his story has him refusing to obey the Roman king’s order that young men of age to fight in the King’s army could not be married.  Valentine, however, answered to a higher power, as he believed the institution of marriage to be sacred.  Predictably, the good preacher married many young men to their brides in secret, until he was discovered by the King and jailed.  Sentenced to die, he was killed on the 14th of February; which is why we hold this day in honor of him.

A second story extends the previous about Valentine.  After he was thrown in jail by the King’s men, he was visited by the daughter of the warden, and fell in love with her – although this could have been more out of a lack of options than a true choice.  The day he was killed, he wrote a letter to her signing his name – from your Valentine.