The Lover’s Holiday: Valentine’s Day History and Lore

Champagne and roses are a part of many Valentine Day Celebrations.

Love is in the air. Today is Valentine’s Day, when sweethearts celebrate by giving their lovers flowers, balloons, chocolates or lace trimmed cards with heart felt verses expressing their love. But where did it start? Why do we celebrate love on February 14?

Like many old celebrations, the origins are somewhat lost in time. It is an old holiday, one tradition says that in AD 496 a Pope Gelasius I established a feast day on February 14, honoring Saint Valentine of Rome, who died on that date in AD 269. The feast is mentioned in the Gelasian Sacramentary (which was compiled after Gelasius), and has been observed since at least the eighth century.

February 14 became associated with romantic love during the 14th and 15th centuries, it was associated with the “lovebirds” of early spring, and it was believed to be the day that birds choose their mates.

In England during the 18th-century, when notions of courtly love flourished, Valentine’s Day grew into an occasion in which couples expressed their love with flowers, candy and hand made cards, which became known as valentines.

Since that time, handwritten valentines have given way to mass-produced greeting cards. One tradition in Italy, Saint Valentine’s Keys are given to lovers “as a romantic symbol and an invitation to unlock the giver’s heart”

One source said we get the tradition of sending cards on Valentine’s Day from 1415 when Charles the Duke of Orleans wrote a poem for his wife while imprisoned in the Tower of London on Valentine’s Day. By the 16th century, cards became common and by the early 19th century, it was the most popular way to show one’s love.

In Laramie Sentinel of Laramie City on February 14, 1879, there is an article about some of the customs of Valentine’s Day.

ST. VALENTINE’S DAY. To-day post-boys and letter carriers in large cities wilt have a busy time of it, delivering the thousands of tender missives with which the mails and post offices wont to deluged upon the annual return of February 14th.(Several towns with names like Valentine, Loveland, Kissimmee, Loving, and Romance used to offer to re-mail postcards and cards with their valentine postmark on Valentine’s Day and the volume of mailings was often greater than at Christmas. If one is interested they can call the postal service to see if this is still a service they offer.)

The origin of this custom of observing St. Valentine’s Day as do most modern peoples who regard it at all, it is difficult to discover, if indeed, it be known to anyone now living….

The most generally accepted explanation of the custom of sending love missives on this day is due to the notion that upon it “birds choose their mates, and couple.” Hence, other bipeds may enjoy the same sweet privilege. At any rate, the manner of its present observance is very ancient, and to young folks, especially, a most agreeable one, furnishing the opportunity for bashful ones to give expression to those delicate sentiments of their hearts, through a tinted, flowered and elaborately embossed poetical effusion, which their lips could never find courage to utter. In England, especially, is this day made one of general observance. In the city of London, it Is estimated that upwards of “100,000 more than the usual number of letters past through the post office on St. Valentine’s Day.”

The inventive genius or American is the design and manufacture of Valentines, has grown to a wonderful degree or perfection, and, while many bubbling young hearts are made to palpitate upon the receipt or a verse of sweetness, done up in a wreath of the most delicately wrought flowerets, in the midst of which Cupid bashfully hides his nudity, while be shoots the arrow of love, book sellers and notion dealers reap a substantial harvest of nickels and quarters, and perhaps the business portion or the world, in the end, is gained by the silly custom of observing St. Valentine’s Day.

In many schools throughout the country elementary children cut out paper valentines, decorate them with doilies in place of lace, and write their heart-felt poems to mothers and fathers; grandmother’s and grandfathers and other favorite people on Valentine’s Day. As is addressed in the article below, these are treasured for years by the recipients.

The Encampment Echo ENCAMPMENT, FEBRUARY 10, 1921 OLD LOVE TOKENS: Years Ago All Valentines Had a Personal Touch. Much of the Romance of the Day Has Passed, Though The Sentiment is the Same as Ever. Three hundred years ago young men and women wrote their own valentines, which consisted then only of love mottoes, or declarations of affection, written In verse from a very full heart and on plain paper. Many of our great-grandmothers saved these old missives. Perhaps our parents came across such valentines, old and yellow and decaying, packed away in lavender in the bottom of a dusty trunk up in the attic. Yet when these valentines were first penned and put in her hand how grandma’s heart did palpitate and the blushes rise to her cheeks. No matter how halting the sonnet, or anagram or triolet, it was the music of love to her. “Heart,” “dart”and “art” did rhyme sweetly! The machine-made valentines that we buy nowadays have lost this personal touch, though perhaps some of them have gained from an artistic point of view. Today it is only the school children and a few open-hearted interested grown-ups who find the custom of valentine making and valentine giving the fascination that it used to be. Why, even Charles Lamb wrote valentines, and loved to.

Now the modern young man drops in a confectioner’s or florist’s shop and orders candy or flowers sent to her. He scorns the valentine sonnet— whereby the girls of today are missing a heap of romance. This was the day when a young man might accuse some young woman he admired of being a coquette without insulting her. In those days “coquette” had just such a naughty meaning as “vamp” has today. It meant a heartless trifler. If she thereupon sent him a handmade valentine on which were two bleeding hearts made as one, it was her answer to his accusation. It meant that conquering the hearts of other men than he, meant nothing to her; that only his heart and hers in all the world counted, that her heart was bleeding for him just as much as his was suffering for her.

As well as the classic red heart, and red roses, Cupid is an endearing symbol of Valentine’s Day. In mythology, Cupid is the god of desire, love and affection. He was considered to be the son of the goddess Venus and Mars, the god of war. He is often portrayed as a naked winged youth with a bow and arrow. The bow and arrow represent his source of power, any person, shot by Cupid’s arrow is filled with uncontrollable desire.

Another article in the The Encampment Echo on February 10, 1921 says this about Cupid. CUPID’S OWN DAY Fourteenth of February Belongs to Him Alone. Anniversary Brightens the Drab Month With Memories of the Past and Joy of the Present. Brightening the dull, drab month of February and doing their very best to cheer up and bring love into our hearts the valentines— the valentines smile at us with their lace and forget- me-not daintiness from the shop windows.

There are elaborate “millionaire” valentines of celluloid and blue ribbons that come in big lace boxes, like French dolls; there are valentines that when pulled out like an accordion become Cinderella coaches of cardboard, laden with Loves and Venuses and Cupids. Others resolve themselves into airy pink-and-blue palaces— you never know— peopled with delightful goddesses and doves.

But the best and most sincere, perhaps, are the old-fashioned valentines — vistas of foamy paper lace, through which you look upon hearts redder ‘ than lovers’ lips, in a prospect of violets and forget-me-nots. And hidden away, like a billet doux in a bouquet, a little verse:

This heart, sweet love, I send to you,

Together with these violets blue;

And if you like this heart of mine,

I pray you be my valentine.

Could anything be more simple or direct to the point? As unerringly as Cupid’s darts or a beau’s rapier, the verse carries its message home. It may be that the Elizabethan lyrics, the love songs of Herrlck and Lovelace and Suckling, survive today only in the valentine. And, ah, what memories these harbingers of love bring with them! They lead us back along the columbine bordered road to yesterday, over the asphodel meadows of Youth and First Love and Childhood Fancies, and we meet and kiss our first sweethearts again— alas, they have gone out of our lives these many years.

And so, dear little Valentine, accept, these violets and forget-me-nots, and hug this message close to your heart— for surely a sweetheart is the sweeter for a valentine, and, as all wise men know, ’tis love that makes the world go round.

Interesting reading for Valentine’s day is Dickens’ account(In the Pickwick Papers) of Sam Welter’s laborious writing of a valentine to his housemaid love, signed “Your lovesick Pickwick.”

In a Laramie Sentinel from Feb. 10, 1889, there was this ad: VALENTINES: Next Thursday is Valentines day and Willinton has got ’em bad – and good too. Call and get your pick early, before the rush begins.

Flowers are a popular way for Americans to celebrate the holiday. In 2020, lovers spent $2.3 billion on flowers and plants for their Valentines.

Valentine’s Day flowers began as a tradition in the 17th century, the rose was supposed to be the favorite flower of Venus, the Goddess of Love. As a result, lovers began giving flowers to those they cared about to show their love. Even the colors have meaning. A red rose is a time-honored way to say “I love you.” They convey passion and a strong romantic love; a white rose is a way to honor a friend or loved one, often after they are gone; a yellow rose means friendship, and a lavender rose represents love at first sight.

And, what would Valentine’s Day be without chocolate? Spanish explorers brought chocolate back to the Old World in the 17th century. Chocolate, which is considered to be an aphrodisiac, soon became the candy of choice for the lover’s holiday. Eating chocolate may be a sensual experience, and it can be good for your health as well. The right type of chocolate contains antioxidants, and can be beneficial for your heart, the organ we associate with love, caring, bonding, and intimacy.

So, no matter what one does for their lover, flowers, balloons chocolate and/or a beautiful card, have a happy Valentine’s Day, whatever your langage de l’amour may be.