The ‘true’ story behind Valentine’s Day

A tale of hearts, flowers and a martyr’s severed head|

Everyone knows that when it comes to the sending of holiday cards, flowers and candy, Valentine’s Day - in sheer numbers of gifts exchanged all around the world - is pretty hard to beat.

Second only to Christmas for the postal exchanges of brightly colored paper products, Valentine’s Day is annually responsible for the printing, purchasing, signing and mailing of more than one billion valentines. The word “valentine,” of course, refers to the actual physical card sent to a loved one, as well as to that loved one receiving the card.

You know? “Be my Valentine” and all that? (Keep reading to find out exactly how this all came to be)

For what it’s worth, about 1,000 of those annual valentines are sent, not to a living person, but to an iconic character from a Shakespeare play. It’s true. Each year, peaking on Valentine’s Day, the city of Verona, in Italy, has to deal with hundreds and hundreds of love letters mailed there, all addressed to Juliet. Some contain offers of marriage. To a dead girl. A fictional dead girl. Kind of weird. Sweet, yes. But still weird.

Now let’s talk about flowers.

Last year, over 50 million roses were given away on Valentine’s Day. Red roses, of course, are most popular, and according to numerous floristry industry reports, about 60 percent of American roses are grown right here in California. According to one report, 15 percent of American women buy themselves flowers on Valentine’s Day, and at least nine million people give some sort of Valentine’s Day treat to their pets.

Speaking of treats, about 36 million heart-shaped boxes of chocolate are handed over every year on Valentine’s Day. See’s Candy estimates that the average calorie content of a chocolate truffle is 200, and if we assume that the average number of pieces in the average heart0shaped box is 10, that would mean that there is a potential of over 72 billion calories being consumed on or around Valentine’s Day.

Frankly, the impact on the dental industry has yet to be fully determined. Halloween, technically, tends to draw most of the dental industry’s focus, candy-wise.

So, how did all of this start?

We know that until the 14th century, when the writer Chaucer and his friends chose St. Valentine’s Day on which to celebrate courtly love – a concept not previously conceived of in poetry or song – Feb. 14 was just another feast day named for a relatively obscure martyr from the early days of Christianity.

In truth, the historical St. Valentine is a man of myth. He is every bit as steeped in layers of story, legend and fancy as is good old St. Nicholas (better known as Santa Claus).

St. Valentine, however, might possibly have a better backstory.

Valentinus, as he was originally known, might be one person or two (or three or more), all combined into one. According to most folktales associated with the guy, Valentine was a Christian residing in Rome around 269 AD, under the rule of Roman emperor Claudius II, an enthusiastic pagan with little tolerance for blaspheming followers of that carpenter from Judea. In fact, it seems there were many Christians named Valentine or Valentinus living in Rome at the time, and so many of them ended up being martyred for their faith it is hard to know which Valentinus was which.

But one definitely stands out.

An early priest with a penchant for conducting clandestine weddings between soldiers and their betrotheds, this Valentine was eventually arrested and sentenced to death, because Claudius, according to the story, had forbidden his soldiers to marry, believing that marriage made them less effective at slaughtering the enemies of Rome. That Valentine had proven effective at converting Romans to Christianity only made him more of a target in the Emperor’s eyes. Some say that Claudius actually called Valentinus to his quarters, in an attempt to convert the priest back to paganism, but Valentine refused to budge, instead attempting to convert Claudius.

His execution date then set, Valentinus was sent back to prison, where he struck up a friendship with a young blind woman, the daughter of the jailer of Rome. In some stories, her name was Julia. In some versions, she was not the daughter of a jailer, but an aristocrat named Asterius, who agreed to house Valentine until his execution.

Whatever.

Point is, there was this blind girl, and since all future saints must, at some point, perform a miracle to be qualified for sainthood, Valentine ended up praying over Julia, and her sight (and ability to read, evidently) was instantly restored. A miracle. The day before his execution, the condemned priest sent a note to Julia, in which he said goodbye.

According to legend, he ended the sweet little note with the words, “From your Valentine.”

The next day, right on schedule, Valentine’s head was lopped off.

That was February 14.

For what it’s worth, his head was saved, and Valentine’s skull is now on display, with a little crown of flowers, in a shrine in Rome. Thousands of people visit it every year. For centuries, Feb. 14 was barely noted at all, but eventually the day was marked as an official church feast day, St. Valentine’s Day.

It would be centuries before it became a day devoted to love, flowers, candy, calories, Juliet of Verona and the ritual swapping of cards. So hats off to St. Valentine. The guy may not have intended to kick-start a whole industry of profitable consumerist manufacture and trade, but he certainly did it with style. And though Valentine’s final moments at the chopping block may not have been all that romantic, at least his memory – or what’s left of it – now inspires millions of people to think about love and want to make their loved ones happy, even if just for a day.

And that’s sweet any way you cut it.

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