Newswise — Every year on February 14th, candy, flowers, and heart-shaped "I love you" cards are sent to loved ones throughout the world to celebrate Valentine's Day. But where do all these holiday practices come from? The ancient Chinese and Egyptians, for example, exchanged messages of love during celebrations of the new year or other occasions. Love - and expressions of love - were also very much a part of what was the Roman Empire. But Professor Judith Hallett from the University of Maryland's Classics Department says March - not February - was reserved for lovers.
Roman Holidays
"In ancient Rome, February 14 was the second day of the Parentalia, an annual festival for honoring the dead," says Hallett. During this festival mourners would visit the tombs of their lost family members, and place a variety of sacrificial offerings, such as flowers, grain, and wine on the graves of deceased parents.
Hallett says, "Love celebrations did not show up on the ancient Roman calendar until March 1, which was sacred to Juno, goddess of marriage, and on that day husbands would pray for the health of their wives and give them presents, and wives would dress up."
Romans liked to use poems as one way to express their love. Prof. Hallett offers this missive from the poet Catullus (ca. 55 BCE) to his married lover:
Let's live, my Lesbia, and let's make loveAnd let us value all the gossip ofPrudent old men at pennies. When the sunSets he can rise again; when we have doneFor good and all with our one little lightWe sleep forever in one dawnless night.Give me a thousand kisses, then a hundred,Another thousand, then a second hundred,Then still another thousand, then a hundred,Then, when our number's countless, then, my dear,Scramble the abacus! So we won't fearThe evil eye of hate, for no one badMust know how many kisses we have had.
- translation by Dorothea Wender (1934-2003)
(Read more about the poet Catullus in The Floating Book (Regan Books), by Michelle Lovric, which Prof. Hallett says is "riveting historical fiction about Catullus and how his poems were printed and published in 15th century Venice.")
From Rome to St. Valentine
Prof. Hallett says the holiday we know as Valentine's Day was probably named after Saint Valentine, a martyred saint who is thought to have lived in the late third century CE (Common Era), (also known as A.D.).
St. Valentine
The validity of the legend of Valentine's Day is disputed; some historians question if Saint Valentine ever lived at all. Celebrations associated with his special day came long after what is referred to as classical Roman history, a period that extended from the second century BCE (Before Common Era), (also known as B.C.), through the second century CE, Hallett says.
The Maryland classics professor says the early association of Valentine's Day and romantic love probably began in France and England during the late Middle Ages.
In Great Britain the celebration of Valentine's Day became popular around the 17th century. By the 18th century it was common for friends and loved ones to exchange gifts or handwritten notes as tokens of affection.
Americans probably began exchanging hand-made valentines in the early 1700s. In the 1840s, Esther A. Howland began to sell the first mass-produced valentines in America. According to the Greeting Card Association, an estimated one billion valentine cards are sent each year, making Valentine's Day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year, behind Christmas.
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