The Hidden History of Valentine's Day: An Emperor, a Priest, and
a Goddess
Valentine's Day approaches -- that time of year when lovers (and
wannabe's) are frantic, wondering whether to splurge on the
heart-shaped box of chocolates, over-priced flowers, or the
predictable greeting cards. Ever wonder how the madness all got
started?
The history of Valentine's Day began with the ancient Festival
of Lupercalia which honored the founding of Rome. To insure the
fertility of the land, the festival also celebrated the erotic
love that was the special domain of Juno, the Roman goddess of
love and marriage. The month February was even named in her
honor -- the word comes from the Latin word "febres", meaning
feverish or febrile.
Held on the hillside near the Lupercallus ("Wolf-Cave"), where
Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, were raised as infants
by a pack of wolves, the festivities were held on February 15
each year. Led by a pagan priest, the activities included
"whipping" all the women to ensure their fertility.
Another part of the celebration involved a lottery in which the
names of the unmarried females were drawn by the eligible
bachelors and the couples were paired for the following year to
honor the goddess Juno -- an earlier version of matchmaker.com,
it seems.
Turn the clock forward to the third century and you find
Claudius II serving as the Emperor of Rome, which by that time
had seen its glory days and was now being threatened on its
borders by the Goths. Claudius had a problem on his hands.
He definitely needed his army to be at full strength. He felt
that married men weren't very good soldiers, given their
tendency to go A.W.O.L. when it was time to harvest the crops or
whenever they felt the urge for a conjugal visit. So concerned
was the Emperor that he used his authority to ban the practice
of marriage. And he banned the Festival of Lupercalia as well,
since it was obviously contributing to the high incidence of
marriage that seemed to be destroying his militia.
For the first time, the pagan Emperor and the growing Christian
church found themselves on the same side of an argument. The
Church was also opposed to the pagan festival of Lupercalia,
objecting to its lustfulness, and especially the practice of the
lottery.
Yet it was a dangerous time to be a Christian priest. A parish
priest named Valentine was part of the Christian underground
and, in defiance of the Emperor's edict, continued to marry
couples in secret. He was soon found out and carried off to
prison.
There must have been something very "special" about Valentine.
The Emperor himself supposedly took the time to visit him in
prison and tried to convert him to the worship of the ancient
pagan deities. He failed miserably, and Valentine was executed
on the February 14, in the year 270.
Church policy in dealing with the ancient religions often
included a strategy of incorporating, rather than just banning,
the pagan traditions. And it proved to be an effective strategy.
Many of our contemporary holiday rituals and traditions are
actually based on ancient pagan celebrations.
Anxious to end the lusty Lupercalia that they saw as a
"festival of the flesh", the Church was a bit more subtle than
the Emperor in their approach to getting rid of it. Having a
"Saint's Day" celebration for the martyred Valentine, and
holding it a day earlier than the pagan festival, was a clever
idea indeed.
But like so many other holidays, Valentine's Day was co-opted
once more, this time by secular, commercial interests. And so
today we find ourselves sending valentines to all sorts of
people, even those for whom we haven't the slightest marital,
romantic, or lustful feelings . . . and wonder where all the
passion in our lives has gone.