Valentine’s Day is celebrated every year on February 14th. It is a day when people show their love to another person through various gifts, including sending cards, flowers, or chocolates.
But who was Valentine?
The day is named after a famous saint, but there are many stories about who he was.
It is generally believed that Valentine was a priest from Rome during the third century.
Emperor Claudius II had banned marriage at the time because he thought married men made weak soldiers. But Valentine believed that this rule was unfair, and he broke the rules by marrying couples in secret.
When Claudius found out, he had Valentine imprisoned and sentenced him to life in prison.
In prison, Valentine fell in love with the jailer’s daughter and when he was sent to be shot on February 14, he sent her a letter signed “from your Valentine”!
How did Valentine’s Day start?
Valentine’s Day is a very old tradition, and it is believed to have originated from a Roman festival.
The Romans had a festival called Lupercalia in mid-February – officially the beginning of their spring.
It is believed that as part of various celebrations, boys would draw names of girls from a box. Then, with the girl whose name they had drawn from the box, they would behave as a couple during the festival and sometimes even end up getting married.
Later, the church decided to turn this festival into a Christian holiday and decided to use it to commemorate Valentine.
Gradually, the name Valentine began to be used by people to express their feelings of love to the person they loved.
