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As with many of today’s holidays, Valentine’s Day has its roots in pagan celebrations. February has been the month of “love” dating back to ancient Athens. “Gamelion,” as the time between mid-January to mid-February was then called, was dedicated to the marriage between Zeus, the ancient god of thunder and sky, and Hera, the goddess of marriage.

By Roman times, Lupercalia, a festival to honor Lupercus, the god of fertility, was celebrated on February 15^th. Lupercus was depicted as half-naked and wearing goat skins. In this ancient festival, priests would sacrifice goats and then run through the streets of Rome, holding goat skins over their heads and touching people as they raced by. Young women thought it particularly lucky to be touched by a priest during this rite, as this was supposed to bring fertility and aid in childbirth. Legends about Lupercalia include young couples pairing off for a year using the drawing system.

Regardless of whether there were sexual drawings or not, early Christians frowned on pagan festivities. This had led to more legends, one of which was the “official reason” behind declaring February 14th St. Valentine’s Day. This legend states that February 14th was declared Valentine’s Day by Pope Gelasius I in 496 AD to counteract the pagan practice of drawing for lovers on Lupercalia, despite the fact that this does not seem to be documented in any contemporary sources.

So what about St. Valentine himself? Who knows? There were several martyred St. Valentines. So, we go back to legend.

Valentine’s Day was not associated with romantic love until the 14th century. During the 15th century, the legends about St. Valentine developed to tie St. Valentine with romantic love. One legend is that Valentine, sentenced to death for his Christian faith, fell in love with his jailer’s daughter. On the night before he was to die, he passed a love note to his beloved, signing it “From your Valentine.”