Valentine's Day - Hallmark Holiday or More?
By Allison Daroie
Many call Valentine’s day a Hallmark Holiday so we decided to research the history behind the holiday. Initially February 14th was a Roman celebration called Lupercalia where the Roman men got naked and whipped young maidens with fresh hides to increase their fertility.
Christians decided to replace the Pagan holiday and name it St. Valentine’s Day. Although Saint Valentine’s history isn’t entirely clear, it appears he may have been the man performing marriage ceremonies in secret defying the Emperor’s order banning marriage for young Roman men because it made them better soldiers. Valentine was executed for defying the emperor. He was allegedly violently beaten and beheaded. Aside from his fate it is pretty romantic that he risked his life to marry young lovers.
Throughout history the holiday became much "sweeter" with cards, chocolates and other things. In 1910, Kansas City based Hallmark began mass producing cards for Valentine’s Day.
Love obviously isn't such a bad thing to celebrate on a particular day, but maybe we should focus on spreading love more frequently without smacking one another with raw hides.