{"id":11024,"date":"2022-02-12T10:06:00","date_gmt":"2022-02-12T09:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.historyextra.com\/?p=21232"},"modified":"2022-02-12T10:19:12","modified_gmt":"2022-02-12T09:19:12","slug":"a-history-of-valentines-day-celebrations-from-fertility-festivals-to-the-first-cards","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/rss_feed\/a-history-of-valentines-day-celebrations-from-fertility-festivals-to-the-first-cards\/","title":{"rendered":"A history of Valentine\u2019s Day celebrations \u2013 from fertility festivals to the first cards"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Ellie Cawthorne\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Saturday, 12 February 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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When was Valentine\u2019s Day first celebrated?<\/h3>\n
From 13 to 15 February, ancient Romans<\/a> celebrated the feast of Lupercalia. Many believe that the origins of Valentine\u2019s Day can be traced back to this ancient fertility festival. To mark the occasion Roman men sacrificed goats before using their skins to whip women in the belief that this would make them fertile. Some historians have argued that at the end of the 5th century, Pope Gelasius I declared 14 February to be Valentine\u2019s Day in an attempt to reclaim this festival from the Romans and Christianise it.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not clear which Saint Valentine<\/a> this day was initially dedicated to, as two saints with this name share the feast day of 14 February. Both of these saints were martyred in Rome; Valentine of Terni in around AD 197 and Valentine of Rome in around AD 496.<\/p>\n
Many legends have been recorded about the latter St Valentine, but these are most likely apocryphal. These include the story that Valentine himself fell in love with his jailor\u2019s daughter while incarcerated for giving aid to prisoners. According to this tale, St Valentine wrote his inamorata a note signed \u201cfrom your Valentine\u201d: the first Valentine\u2019s greeting. However, while this fanciful story is compelling, it is unlikely to be true.<\/p>\n
The next milestone in the history of Valentine\u2019s Day came in 1382, when Geoffrey Chaucer<\/a> wrote his poem Parlement of Foules<\/em>. This poem contains what is widely reported to be the first recorded instance of St Valentine\u2019s Day being linked to romantic love. This reference can be found in the lines:<\/p>\n
For this was on seynt Volantynys day<\/em><\/p>\n
Whan euery foul comyth there to chese his make.<\/em><\/p>\n
Not everyone agrees that Chaucer was referring to 14 February here, however. Some have argued that he was instead talking of May time, when birds are more likely to mate in England. This coincides with the feast of St Valentine of Genoa, which also falls in May. Nevertheless, the story of Chaucer\u2019s connection with Valentine\u2019s Day is often repeated.<\/p>\n
In bed with the Romans: a brief history of sex in Ancient Rome<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Roses are red: the first Valentine\u2019s greetings<\/h3>\n
In 15th-century France, 14 February became an annual feast day celebrating romantic love. Lavish banquets with singing and dancing were held to mark the occasion. It was also a 15th-century Frenchman who committed the earliest surviving Valentine\u2019s greeting to paper. While imprisoned in the Tower of London<\/a> following the 1415 battle of Agincourt<\/a>, the Duke of Orleans wrote to his wife:<\/p>\n
Je suis desja d\u2019amour tann\u00e9<\/em><\/p>\n
Ma tres doulce Valentin\u00e9e<\/em><\/p>\n
This translates roughly as, \u201cI am already sick of love, my very gentle Valentine\u201d. This remarkable letter survives in the manuscript collections of the British Library, which also holds the oldest surviving Valentine\u2019s letter in the English language. This dates from 1477 and was sent by one Margery Brews to her fianc\u00e9 John Paston. In this letter Margery describes John as her \u201cright well-beloved Valentine\u201d.<\/p>\n
By the 17th century Valentine\u2019s Day gets a mention in William Shakespeare<\/a>\u2019s Hamlet<\/em>, when Ophelia is given the lines:<\/p>\n
To-morrow is Saint Valentine\u2019s day,<\/em><\/p>\n
All in the morning betime,<\/em><\/p>\n
\u2028And I a maid at your window,\u2028<\/em><\/p>\n
To be your Valentine.<\/em><\/p>\n
However, it was in the 18th century that the most familiar Valentine\u2019s poem made its first appearance. These lines, found in a collection of nursery rhymes printed in 1784, read:<\/p>\n
The rose is red, the violet\u2019s blue,<\/em><\/p>\n
The honey\u2019s sweet, and so are you.<\/em><\/p>\n
While this was the first appearance of the poem in this form, its origins reach back to Sir Edmund Spenser\u2019s 1590s epic, The Faerie Queene<\/em>. This featured the lines:<\/p>\n
She bath\u2019d with roses red, and violets blew,<\/em><\/p>\n
And all the sweetest flowres, that in the forrest grew.<\/em><\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
When were the first Valentine\u2019s cards?<\/h3>\n
The first Valentine\u2019s cards were sent in the 18th century. Initially these were handmade efforts, as pre-made cards were not yet available. Lovers would decorate paper with romantic symbols including flowers and love knots, often including puzzles and lines of poetry. Those who were less inspired could buy volumes that offered guidance on selecting the appropriate words and images to woo their lover. These cards were then slipped secretly under a door, or tied to a door-knocker.<\/p>\n
It was in Georgian Britain that pre-printed cards first began to appear, though these were not yet as popular as they were eventually to become. Perhaps the oldest surviving example dates from 1797: this card, held at York Castle Museum, was sent by one Catherine Mossday to a Mr Brown of London. It is decorated with flowers and images of Cupid, with a verse printed around the border reading:<\/p>\n
Since on this ever Happy day,\u2028<\/em><\/p>\n
All Nature\u2019s full of Love and Play<\/em><\/p>\n
\u2028Yet harmless still if my design,\u2028<\/em><\/p>\n
\u2018Tis but to be your Valentine.<\/em><\/p>\n
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