Valentine’s Day

Valentine’s Day, also known as St. Valentine’s Day, is celebrated each year in America on Feb. 14th

A Brief History Of Valentine’s Day

Before the holiday we in the west currently celebrate, Valentine’s Day was observed by Romans as the festival of  Lupercalia, held in mid-February as a rite of spring. The celebrations included fertility rites, sacrifices, and a lottery-based matchmaking event.

By the time of the 5th century, religious leaders in the Catholic church appropriated Lupercalia much in the same way Easter was co-opted from competing religions. Rebranded as St. Valentine’s Day, the name is said to have originated from one of two people put to death by the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius Claudius Gothicus circa 270 CE.

Some refer to this date as 270 AD, but “AD” is short for Anno Dominai, which is distinctly Christian nomenclature which is why scholars took to referring to the date as 270 CE, which is short for “Common Era.” Both designations refer to history occurring from the time of Christ onward and in spite of what some might infer, the use of CE instead of AD dates as far back as the 16th century.