What is St. Valentine’s day? According to junior Sophie Foster, “It’s about getting candy, flowers and showering loved ones with affection.” On the contrary, senior Nick Daley thinks “Valentine’s day is a made up holiday but the only reason we have it is to waste money [and] to [boost] the economy.” Really they’re both equally wrong and right, it is really the day when we are supposed to remember St. Valentine. One thing is for sure, we are not honoring his memory well by buying red gorillas that sing love machine.
There are woo possible origins to Valentine’s day. The most popular is about a Roman priest named Valentine who would secretly join Soldiers and their lovers in holy matrimony. It turns out that happily ever after didn’t work out so well for Valentine because the Romans were displeased with him when they found out.
The Roman Valentine might be the most famous but there is a lesser known Valentine from Belarus. There was a man named Valentine who fell in love with the beautiful daughter of the Belorussian Czar but alas she was already promised to the Prince of Russia. It was custom in Belarus to give the woman your heart but Valentine quickly realized the folly in this plan. Even if she received the gift, he would be dead. The one thing about this story that has made an impact though is the fact that we still give people gifts in the shape of hearts to this day.
The Holiday was first associated with love by Geoffrey Chaucer in a poem honoring the anniversary of King Richard II and Anne of Bohemia. The Holiday’s popularity grew steadily throughout the middle ages and the Renaissance. Around 1840, Valentine’s cards started to grow in popularity among the middle and lower classes. It wasn’t for a few more year when people started to make cards to sell. This became popular because making your own Valentine was time consuming. This would eventually lead to mass-produced cards, which would help boost commercialization in other holidays further.
Today Valentine’s day is virtually unrecognizable to the day in which we honored St. Valentine but there might be a bright side, maybe Daley is right and will give a boost to our loveless economy.