History of Val's Day

For a holiday that now centers on lavish expressions of love through flowers, food and jewelry, many people would not suspect it once started as a bloody feast celebrating fertility and the founders of Rome.

Fran Titchener, professor in the history department, said ultimately Saint Valentine's Day is one of many holidays which was originally pagan but ultimately turned into a Christian holiday. What ancients celebrated as Lupercalia on Feb. 15 would horrify modern day people commemorating Valentine's Day, Titchener said.

Two chosen men from the town would have blood wiped on their foreheads while they laughed, a goat and dog would be sacrificed by priests and cut into strips, and the two men would run nearly naked through the town, gently slapping buildings and women with the strips of meat to increase fertility, she said.

The feast remained Lupercalia until approximately A.D. 500 when the holiday was incorporated by the Christian church. Titchener said Christianity adopted many pagan holidays by renaming them but keeping them near the original celebration date.

"That's why it's so successful," she said. "People don't mind as long as they get to have their party. It's one of these amalgamations of a pagan holiday and a Christian saint to make it palatable to the Christian church."

The concept of a holiday celebrating love is traced back to the time of Roman Emperor Claudius II, Titchener said. Claudius, faced with a small army, outlawed marriage to try and boost the number of men in the army.

"Legend has it Valentine was marrying people on the sly. Then he gets thrown in jail and becomes a martyr," she said.

The story of Valentine eventually evolved into the holiday celebrated today.

Titchener said there are other parts to the myth that are more unlikely but contribute to the story. In one, during the feast of Lupercalia, men would draw women's names from an urn and thereby choose a lover for the next year. However, Titchener said that is not probable. In another version of the Valentine story, when in jail, Valentine fell in love with the jailer's daughter and would send her messages ending with "from your Valentine," consequently spurring the greeting card industry.

"It got Hallmarkified," Titchener said.

Valentine's Day was much bloodier for the ancients, she said.

"A heart with an arrow through it? When you think about it, it is a gory thing," Titchener said.

Ultimately though, the influence of the Christian church mellowed the holiday into the chocolate and roses filled holiday celebrated today.

-di.lewis@aggiemail.usu.edu