Every year on 14 February people celebrate this day by sending messages of love and affection to partners, family and friends. Couples send Valentine's Day cards and flowers and spend special time together to honour their love for each other.
There are many stories about St Valentine and over time these stories grew into the legend we know today. At the time of Valentine's life, many Romans were converting to Christianity, but the Emperor Claudius II was a pagan and created strict laws about what Christians were allowed to do.
Claudius believed that Roman soldiers should be completely devoted to Rome and therefore passed a law preventing them from marrying. St Valentine began to marry these soldiers in secret Christian ceremonies and this was the beginning of his reputation for believing in the importance of love.
Eventually, Valentine was found out and jailed for his crimes against Claudius. While imprisoned, Valentine cared for his fellow prisoners and also his jailor's blind daughter.
Valentine was executed on 14 February in the year It wasn't until more than years later that 14 February was proclaimed St Valentine's Day. By this time Rome had become Christian and the Catholic Church was determined to stamp out any remaining paganism. A pagan fertility ritual was held in February each year and the Pope abolished this festival and proclaimed 14 February Saint Valentine's Day, thus establishing this feast day on the Catholic Calendar of Saints.
This year, Valentine's Day is on Sunday, February 14, There are multiple saints named 'Valentine' that appear throughout history, but only one is credited with starting the romantic origins of the holiday we know today.
The story goes that in the year A. His last act before he died was writing a love letter to the woman who frequently came to visit him while he was imprisoned. He signed the letter, "From your Valentine," and from then on it has been considered the very first Valentine's Day card in history. Valentinus died on February 14, A. Valentine's Day. While St. Valentine lived in ancient Rome, the holiday actually combines both Christian and ancient Roman traditions—but it didn't begin as a day filled with cards and flowers.
In the fourth century, a celebration called Lupercalia was celebrated on February On that day, it's said that Roman priests would sacrifice an animal they believed to be associated with fertility typically a goat. That evening, all the single women in the area would come and place their names in a large urn; names were then drawn by all the eligible bachelors, and typically the couples would decide to get married.
Two centuries after Valentinus wrote his love letter in A. The day gets its name from a famous saint, but there are several stories of who he was. Emperor Claudius II had banned marriage because he thought married men were bad soldiers. Valentine felt this was unfair, so he broke the rules and arranged marriages in secret. When Claudius found out, Valentine was thrown in jail and sentenced to death.
There, he fell in love with the jailer's daughter and when he was taken to be killed on 14 February he sent her a love letter signed "from your Valentine". To enjoy Newsround at its best you will need to have JavaScript turned on. If you cannot see the interactive activity on this page, click here. Having a particular Valentine's Day is a very old tradition, thought to have originated from a Roman festival.
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