In many parts of the world, February 14 is celebrated as Valentine’s Day. On February 14, people show their love for their lover or spouse by receiving gifts, sending cards or words of love.
It is celebrated as “Saint Valentine’s Day” in many parts of the world. The Turkish equivalent is Valentine’s Day. On the day named after Saint Valentine, the word “valentine” means “beloved”.
Mostly in the form of a romantic celebration, February 14 is actually about keeping the memory of a Christian Saint alive. Saint Valentine, officially recognized by the Catholic church, was killed in 270 AD. In order to keep his memory alive, February 14, the date of his burial, began to be celebrated as Valentine’s Day.
Who is Saint Valentine? His Brutal Death
Roman emperor Claudius II is a cruel ruler with strict rules. The biggest problem of the ruler is not being able to find soldiers to fight in the army. The ruler, who could not find any soldiers, thought that the Roman men did not want to leave their love and family as a reason. For this reason, he banned and abolished all engagements and marriages in the Roman Empire.
During the reign of Claudius, St. Valentine was a priest living in Rome. Despite the prohibition of marriage, St. Valentine continued to marry couples with St. Marius, a priest like himself. After a while, the ruler heard about this and had Saint Valentine arrested.
The priest was beaten to death with a stick. Saint Valentine was buried in the Christian martyrdom on February 14 in 270 BC. February 14, the day Saint Valentin died, is celebrated as “Valentine’s Day” to keep his memory alive.
At the same time, there is a 3-day festival called Lupercalia in Rome in February. Celebrated in mid-February, the festival is celebrated in honor of the fertility god and is considered the herald of spring. It is a festival held so that single young people, who are normally far from each other, can come together.
For this, a certain lottery is held at the festival. The papers on which the names of the singles are written are determined by drawing. The couples who get together in the lottery become lovers during the festival and even get married later.
The pagans living in Rome started to celebrate this festival for their pagan gods over time. They also started to practice the drawing, which is a ceremony held before the feast, for their own purposes.
The priests, who were in the first establishment of the Christian Church, were disturbed by the commemoration of these ceremonies, especially the unmarried young people, with pagans. As a solution, they changed the start date of the Lupercalia Feast to “Saint Valentine’s Day”.
Over time, February 14 has become a day when lovers send each other love messages and begin to be celebrated. In Saint Valentine, he began to be known as the patron saint of lovers. After 1800, Esther Howland sent the first Valentine’s Day card in America, and it became a card-sending day.
