Valentine's Day History

Happy Valentine's Day

While many believe that the romantic holiday was just invented to sell couples, cards, and overpriced candy

it actually has a much more disturbing background than cabalistic overconsumption. One theory suggests that Valentine's Day origins coincide with the Roman festival of Leuercolia

held from February 13 to the 50. According to History.com, this spring celebration included blood, violence, and sexually charged celebrations

that included animal sacrifice and random matchmaking, all to ward off infertility and evil spirits

Similar, right? It's believed the festival started to honor the she-wolf Lupacal

who raised Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, according to legend. Bonus points because this festival also honored the fertility god, Budapris

Luda! Wait, no, Luperchris. Woo! My bad. Roman priests would sacrifice a goat for fertility and a dog for purification

They would then strip the goats hide into pieces. dip them in the sacrificial blood and take to the streets

and gently slap women and crop fields you know property Let just sit with that for a moment Supposedly according to the man who wrote history 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 an urn. The city's bachelors would each choose a name and become paired for the year with

his chosen woman. These matches often end in marriage. So, basically, basically married up her sight. Unsurprisingly, the tradition did not last long after the rise of Christianity

It was deemed unchristian at the end of the 5th century Pope Glazius declared February 14th Valentine's Day

So how did we get from all of that to Valentine's Day

Well, with more death. Emperor Claudius II executed two men named Valentine on February 14th

for performing marriages to young couples. See, Claudius had decided that. that single men made better soldiers than those with wives or families thus outlying marriage for all single young men Okay hot take so all I have to say about that their deaths were honored by the Catholic Church and years later the day became known as St Valentine Day

Years later, the English poet Geoffrey Schausher, Jock, Schoffer, Chaucer. Geoffrey Chaucer was the first to record

St. Valentine's Day as the day of Romantic Celebration, in his 1375 poem

The Parliament of Fowles, which was inspired by the belief that February 14th was the beginning of the birds mating season

which inspired humans to also be romantic. Medieval birds, the first Twitter influencers

That joke's less funny now that's called X, isn't it? By the 17th century, people in Great Britain began exchanging handwritten notes

By the next century became common to give small tokens of affection. Fast forward to the 19th century, and Esther A. Holland

known as the Mother of the Valentine, created the first decorated Valentine's card

In 1913, Hallmark started mass producing them, and basically that's where we're at now

Following Christmas Valentine Day is the second largest card holiday with an estimate 145 million cards are sent out each year I can even process that number Now that you slightly traumatized let do a palette cleanser with just some down

modern Valentine's Day facts. Valentine's Day is celebrated across the world, especially in the U.S., Britain, Canada

and Australia. In the Philippines, February 14th is actually the most common wedding anniversary

Aw! According to 1-800 flowers, teachers are actually the ones who receive the most amount of Valentine's

each year, followed by kids, mothers, wives, and girlfriends. I assumed mistresses are next, but maybe husbands or boyfriends

Men do spend twice as much on the holiday as women do, with the average being around $130

with women's average spending being around 70. No clue what this does for anyone's fertility, but it's gotta be better than getting hit

with bloody animal hides. But I'm not a doctor. Lastly, it's extremely common for pets to also get little treats and gifts for the holiday

don't know they will be expecting something, especially dogs. It's repriations at this point