Valentine’s Day | Definition, History, & Traditions (2024)

FAQs

Valentine’s Day | Definition, History, & Traditions? ›

It originated as a Christian feast day honoring a martyr named Valentine, and through later folk traditions it has also become a significant cultural, religious and commercial celebration of romance and love in many regions of the world.

Saint Valentine was discovered and imprisoned in a torture-ridden Roman jail, where he fell in love with a mysterious girl (believed to be his prosecutor's daughter). He sent her a love letter signed 'from your Valentine' right before his execution, thus originating the romantic sign-off still widely used today.

Celebrating Valentine's Day in the United States comes with multiple go-to practices. Offering a bouquet of red roses to your beloved. Purchasing a card with a heartfelt message. Sharing a candlelit meal with your partner.

Another story claims that St. Valentine sent the first “valentine” greeting himself after falling in love with a young woman, possibly his jailer's daughter, while imprisoned. By the Middle Ages, Valentine's Day had evolved into a day associated with courtly love and romantic expression in Europe.

What is Valentine's Day? St Valentine's Day is an annual festival to celebrate romantic love, friendship and admiration. Every year on 14 February people celebrate this day by sending messages of love and affection to partners, family and friends.

1 John 4:7-12. Dear friends: let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

It originated as a Christian feast day honoring a martyr named Valentine, and through later folk traditions it has also become a significant cultural, religious and commercial celebration of romance and love in many regions of the world.

Some believe Valentine's Day is celebrated on February 14 because that is when Saint Valentine was killed or buried. Others claim the date has to do with the ancient Roman feast of Lupercalia, which was a days-long celebration that would start on February 13 and end on February 15.

One Valentine was a priest in third-century Rome who defied Emperor Claudius II after the ruler outlawed marriage for young men. St. Valentine would perform marriages in secret for young lovers, ultimately leading to his death.

As the god of love, Cupid has come to be associated with Valentine's Day, which is believed to have originally been a pagan holiday which became Christianised. In ancient Rome people worshipped the god of love - Eros or the Romans' Cupid.

What is the spiritual meaning of Valentine's day? ›

In the Bible, the word “valentine” is used about God's love for us. He is the ultimate Valentine who loved us so much that He gave His Son, Jesus, to die for our sins. Valentine's Day is mostly known as a day when couples celebrate their love for one another.

Some scholars have suggested that Valentine's Day has its roots in the ancient Roman festival of Lupercalia. Celebrated on February 15, Lupercalia was a bloody and even brutal affair in which animals would be sacrificed in the Lupercal cave at the base of Palatine Hill in Rome.

If that works for you, do it. But the biblical pattern teaches us that romantic love between husband and wife should be on display often and much. It isn't that celebrating Valentine's Day is too much; it is too little and weak. Christians, live your married years so that you don't need Valentine's Day.

Turns out, it was a pretty common name during Late Antiquity. As far as anyone can tell, the Saint Valentine of Valentine's Day was one of two guys preaching the good word in Rome in the third century. One of these two was martyred on February 14th 269, thus giving us the date for his eponymous day.

A valentine is a sweetheart: specifically, someone who receives a greeting or attention on Valentine's Day. There are many words for someone you like in a romantic way, such as sweetie, main squeeze, boyfriend, girlfriend, significant other, and special someone.

Saint Valentine was a clergyman – either a priest or a bishop – in the Roman Empire who ministered to persecuted Christians. He was martyred and his body buried on the Via Flaminia on February 14, which has been observed as the Feast of Saint Valentine (Saint Valentine's Day) since at least the eighth century.

However, many historians believe the day originated from the Roman pagan festival of fertility called Lupercalia, an event filled with animal sacrifice, random coupling and the whipping of women; not quite the romantic chocolate and roses day that we celebrate today.

Valentine's Day exploded in popular culture beginning in the 1840s. The origins of Valentine's Day are pretty obscure. While scholars generally agree that the holiday was popularized in the 1840s in the U.K. and U.S., the specific historical roots of the celebration remain ambiguous.