As couples everywhere make preparations for Valentine’s Day by purchasing countless amounts of candy, chocolates, flowers and jewelry, it is easy to forget why this holiday is celebrated in the first place. Valentine’s Day’s history runs back to the third century and has undergone considerable changes in that time.

St. Valentine’s Day, as it is officially known, contains both Christian and ancient Roman traditions. In accordance with its name, Valentine’s Day began with St. Valentine.

According to www.history.com, the Roman Catholic Church recognizes three different saints named Valentine or Valentius.

One legend says that Valentine served as a priest in the third century. When Emperor Claudius II outlawed marriage for young men because he believed single men made better soldiers, Valentine continued to perform marriages in secret, disagreeing with the law and believing in young love. Unfortunately, when Claudius learned of these actions, he had Valentine put to death. Other legends cast St. Valentine as a bishop in Terni or a saint who died in Africa.

Although the exact fate of St. Valentine is still unknown, some say he was beheaded, while others say he became ill and passed away in prison. All three Valentines are said to have been martyred on Feb. 14. What are believed to be Valentine’s remains can still be viewed at Whitefriar Church in Dublin, Ireland every Valentine’s Day.

While some believe the St. Valentine legends, according to www.history.com, others believe the “Catholic church may have decided to celebrate Valentine’s feast day in the middle of February in an effort to Christianize celebrations of the pagan Lupercalia festival.” Lupercalia, which began on Feb. 15, was a fertility festival dedicated to the Roman god of agriculture Faunus and the founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus. As part of the festival, all the young women in the city would place their names in an urn. The city bachelors would then choose a name out of the urn and the respective woman would become theirs for the year. These matches sometimes resulted in marriage.

However, this pairing system was deemed unlawful by the Christian church and was therefore discontinued. Instead, Pope Gelasius I declared February 14 a Christian feast day and named it St. Valentine’s Day. This day became associated with romance in the 14th century when Geoffrey Chaucer wrote a poem in honor of the engagement of Richard II of England and Anne of Bohemia.

History of the Valentine’s Day Card

According to legend, the first Valentine’s Day card was actually sent by St. Valentine. The legend states that, while in prison, Valentine fell in love with a young girl who visited him during his sentence. To the girl, who may have been the jailer’s daughter, Valentine wrote a letter which he signed, “From your Valentine.” This expression is still in use. While this may have been the first valentine, the oldest valentine still in existence was written by Charles, Duke of New Orleans in 1415. The valentine, a poem to his wife, was written while he was in prison at the Tower of London. This imprisonment followed his capture at the Battle of Agincourt.

Following the trend, by the middle of the eighteenth century, it was common for friends and lovers to show their affection by exchanging handwritten notes. As technology progressed, the handwritten notes were replaced by ready-made cards. These cards allowed people to express their emotions in a time when expression of one’s feelings was discouraged.

The first commercial greeting cards in the U.S. were produced in the 1840s by Esther A. Howland. These cards ignited what is now a billion dollar industry. The U.S. Greeting Card Association estimates that over one billion valentines are sent each year, 85 percent of which are purchased by women. This statistic makes Valentine’s Day the second largest card holiday, second only to Christmas.