Valentine’s Day is a holiday typically celebrated by giving out candy, chocolates, flowers, and love letters to your lover either by some grand gesture or a simple, romantic one. It is also popular to celebrate with friends. However, the holiday has come a long way since its first known origins dating as far back as 270 AD. There are many possible explanations for how and why the celebration became a holiday, but what’s for certain is that it’s always been “love”-ly.

The first known celebration centered around love, much like Valentine’s Day today, was the Pagan tradition of Lupercalia held in Rome during the month of February. It was a festival said to bring fertility, with dedication to Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, and Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture. The celebrations of the festival were very different from what is done today. All of the young women in the city would write their names down and place them in an urn. Then all of the single men would choose a name from the urn and pair up with the woman they chose. They would stay coupled for the rest of the festival and typically got married afterwards. This matchmaking ritual led to many successful couples and is the oldest tradition of love on record.

As for where the holiday got its name, it is unclear which Christian martyr named Valentine it is based on. Some say that it was a priest named Valentine who married young couples in secret after Emperor Claudius II outlawed it in Rome. Once his actions were brought to light, he was killed. Others say it was St. Valentine, who tried freeing Christians from Roman prisons and the torture they faced within them. He himself was jailed as a result. In a letter he wrote to his jailer’s daughter, whom he befriended, he signed it “from your Valentine”, which is a saying still commonly used to this day. Regardless of which account of Valentine is credited with the origins of Valentine’s Day, he was a caring, heroic, and romantic figure.

Valentine’s Day only emerged as a romantic holiday in the 14th century. Valentine greetings were popular in the 1300s, but it wasn’t until the written Valentine came out in 1400 that it became more similar to what it is today. People, even dukes and kings, would write romantic letters to their significant others for the holiday. By the 1750s, friends and lovers would exchange small gifts and handwritten letters, and the creation of printed cards in the 1900s boosted this trend even more. 

Students of Apex were planning to celebrate in many different ways. Some were hanging out with friends and having a celebration amongst themselves while others planned on going on dates with their significant others. Some even planned on just enjoying the candy and chocolates that come with the holiday by themselves. Regardless of how you enjoyed Valentine’s Day, it’s fun for everyone to participate!