By Tatenda Gapa

Each year on February 14, many people exchange cards, candy, gifts or flowers with their special “Valentines.”
The day of romance we call Valentine’s Day is named after a Christian martyr and dates back to the 5th Century, but has origins in the Roman holiday Lupercalia.
On this day across the world, candy, flowers and gifts are exchanged between loved ones, in the name of St. Valentine.
But who is this mysterious saint and where did these traditions come from?
The history of Valentine’s Day and the story of its patron saint is shrouded in mystery.
St Valentine’s Day contains vestiges of both Christian and ancient Roman (pagan) tradition.
Valentine’s Day is probably the second most popular card-sending holiday after Christmas.
The Catholic Church recognises at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom were martyred.
One legend contends Valentine was a priest who served during the 3rd Century in Rome.
When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he outlawed marriage for young men.
Valentine, realising the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When Valentine’s actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death.
Other stories suggest that Valentine may have been killed for attempting to help Christians escape harsh Roman prisons, where they were often beaten and tortured.
According to one legend, an imprisoned Valentine actually sent the first “Valentine” greeting himself after he fell in love with a young girl–possibly his jailor’s daughter–who visited him during his confinement.
Before his death, it is alleged he wrote her a letter signed “From your Valentine,” an expression that is still in use today.
Although the truth behind the Valentine legends is murky, the stories all emphasise his appeal as a sympathetic, heroic and, most importantly, romantic figure.
By the Middle Ages, perhaps thanks to this reputation, Valentine became one of the most popular saints in England and France.
While some believe that Valentine’s Day is celebrated in the middle of February to commemorate the anniversary of Valentine’s death or burial which probably occurred around AD 270, others claim that the Christian church may have decided to place St Valentine’s feast day in the middle of February in an effort to “Christianise” the pagan celebration of Lupercalia.
Lupercalia was a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, as well as to the Roman founders Romulus and Remus.
To begin the festival, members of the Luperci, an order of Roman priests, would gather at a sacred cave where the infants Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, were believed to have been cared for by a she-wolf.
The priests would sacrifice a goat, for fertility and a dog, for purification.
They would then cut the goat’s hide into strips, dip them into the sacrificial blood and take to the streets, gently slapping women and crop fields with the goat hide.
Far from being fearful, Roman women welcomed the touch of the hides because it was believed to make them more fertile in the coming year.
Later in the day, according to legend, all the young women in the city would place their names in a big urn. The city’s bachelors would each choose a name and become paired for the year with the chosen woman.
These matches often ended in marriage.
Lupercalia survived the initial rise of Christianity but was outlawed as it was deemed “un-Christian” at the end of the 5th Century, when Pope Gelasius declared February 14 St Valentine’s Day.
It was not until much later, however, that the day became definitively associated with love.
During the Middle Ages, it was commonly believed in France and England that February 14 was the beginning of birds’ mating season, which added to the idea that Valentine’s Day should be a day for romance.
Valentine greetings were popular as far back as the Middle Ages, though written ‘Valentines’ didn’t begin to appear until after 1400.
The oldest known Valentine artefact still in existence today is a poem written in 1415 by Charles, Duke of Orleans, to his wife while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London following his capture at the Battle of Agincourt.
The greeting is now part of the manuscript collection of the British Library in London, England.
By the middle of the 18th Century, it was common for friends and lovers of all social classes to exchange small tokens of affection or handwritten notes and by 1900 printed cards began to replace written letters due to improvements in printing technology.
Ready-made cards were an easy way for people to express their emotions at a time when direct expression of one’s feelings was discouraged.
Cheaper postage rates also contributed to an increase in the popularity of sending Valentine’s Day greetings.
Today, the holiday is big business for many the world over.
Additional information:www.history.com/topics/valentines-day/history-of-valentines-day