Elleda Wilson: Be my Valentine
Feb. 9—The exact history of how Valentine's Day (which is Tuesday, by the way) came about is a bit muddy, according to History.com.
One legend contends that a priest named Valentine, imprisoned and sentenced to death by the Romans, wrote a letter to a young girl he loved signing it, "from your Valentine." The expression has stuck, and marked St. Valentine as a symbol of romance, as well as martyrdom. The date of his death (or burial), which was in mid-February, became his feast day.
A more cynical view says the mid-February date was chosen because the church was trying to distract parishioners from the Roman fertility festival of Lupercalia, celebrated on the ides of February (Feb. 15). The priests would sacrifice a goat, cut the hide into strips, dunk them in the blood, then slap the women and fields with the bloody strips to boost fertility. Then there would be a lottery, during which the single men would pick a woman's name and then stay with her for a year.
Needless to say, the church deeply frowned on such antics, calling the festival "un-Christian" in the late 400s, when a pope declared Feb. 14 as the official St. Valentine's Day. Coincidentally, both the French and English believed that date to be the start of bird-mating season.
And finally, a bit of trivia: The oldest known written Valentine was a poem written by Charles, Duke of Orleans, in 1415, while he was locked up for 25 years in the Tower of London. It was a poem, addressed to his wife, declaring her his "very gentle Valentine."
