Years before there existed a Saint Valentine to spice things up and bring some passion into the season, mid-February was already an exciting time for Roman youths. As far back as 400 years BCE, Roman citizens held a special sweepstake in honor of their god of shepherds, Lupercus. Young women's names were written down and put inside a box and then selected by chance alone by eager young men. The young people were legally joined for the rest of the year.
In the third century AD, the militaristic emperor Claudius II prohibited young males from getting married -- because he took it into his head that unmarried males could fight harder in battle.
It is believed that a Christian bishop, Valentine, didn't agree with Claudius and continued to marry young couples in secret until Claudius dicovered his disloyalty and first imprisoned him, and finally caused him to be martyred for his faith on February 24th, 270.
The story goes that while he was locked up, Valentine fell in love with his guard's daughter and after he was taken to his death, he wrote her a note which he ended with, 'From your Valentine.'
Using the name of the martyred priest as an excuse, the by now established Christian Church, in AD 496, took the opportunity to put an end to the traditional ancient lottery run in the name of the god Lupercus and so made some changes of their own to the rules of the event:
After that, both the young men and the young women would select a name in the lottery, but now they wouldn't get the expected year of 'marriage' (and most likely the sexual gratification that came with it), they now had to pick out a Saint whose character they were obliged emulate over the coming twelve months.
What a crushing disappointment that must have been for the lusty youngsters in Roman days!
This new 'celebration' day was called after Saint Valentine whose choice, more than two centuries after his execution, was in order to usurp the traditional god Lupercus than from any honest reverence towards love.
As so often happens, ingrained public loyalty to old ideas was stronger than the latest political ideas -- particularly when unpopular and Saint Valentine continued to be synonymous with love and lovers. The young men of Rome, now that they had lost their lottery, started instead passing paper notes to the young ladies they hoped to gain favor with on February 14th.
And so, our modern love of distributing and receiving Valentines cards and messages was effectively begun more than one-and-a-half millennia ago!
The very first modern-day card that is still in existence is in the collection of the british Museum in London. It was sent by Charles, Duke of Orleans to his wife in 1415. He was held captive in the Tower of London at the time and so outpourings of love were probably at an intense level!
Five hundred years ago the Bishop of Geneva wanted to restart the regular 'emulate a saint' lottery, but the people were not much interested. February 14th was by then too firmly associated with lovers for the Church to successfully interfere.
At the end of the 18th century, in 1797 a British publisher, who would have done very well in modern Internet times, sold a pamphlet called 'The Young Man's Valentine Writer' in which were hundreds of pre-written Valentines messages for young men with more passion than poetry in their souls.
Anonymous Valentines cards not surprisingly started in Victorian times. The publicly highly repressed Victorians privately adored anything of a racy nature, but publicly had to display a veneer of being pillars of society. As a consequence the verses in Victorian cards became ruder and ruder, while the writers were still able to hide from behind their self-imposed anonymity.
The earliest known of Valentine's cards in in the United States, Esther Holland set a price of up to $35 for a single card. An enormous amount of money way back in 1870!
In case you are wondering, we still write kisses with the letter 'x' because in the days before people could generally read and write, your signature was a cross. To make the mark an oath, the person signing would be expected to kiss the cross they had written -- much the same as they would kiss a Bible. Unsurprisingly the written 'x' became a written substitute for a kiss.
I wish you a love-filled Valentine's day! X
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