We’ve all known about Valentine’s Day since the days when we would choose cards with Spongebob or Batman and carefully write the names of all our classmates on little red envelopes.
But how did Valentine’s Day get its start? And how did it become so identified with the iconic red heart?
Valentine’s Day stems from Lupercalia, an ancient Roman fertility festival. According to National Geographic, “The lovers’ holiday traces its roots to raucous annual Roman festivals where men stripped naked, grabbed goat- or dog-skin whips, and spanked young maidens in hopes of increasing their fertility, said classics professor Noel Lenski of the University of Colorado at Boulder.”
The festival was so popular that the Christian church eventually absorbed it, connecting it to the legend of St. Valentine. There were two (or maybe three) guys named Valentine who were martyred in the 3rd century AD.
A popular legend surrounding the most famous of them is that he secretly performed weddings for young Roman soldiers after the emperor forbade marriage for them, but was found and executed for it. Another one says that he sent love letters to the woman he loved, who was reportedly the jailer’s daughter, and signed them “Your dear Valentine.”
The first Valentine’s cards appeared in the 16th century, and commercially printed versions were in use by the late 18th century. They weren’t mass-produced until the 1840s.
In medieval Europe, people associated the holiday with birds because their mating seasons were around that time of year. There was a tradition of young women getting up early in the morning and walking in the forest to look for birds. According to legend, the first bird a woman saw predicted what type of man she would marry. Woodpeckers were especially bad news in that regard, because they meant you would never get married!
Iconography of Valentine’s Day
These days, we see the heart symbol everywhere, used as a “like” button or generally to represent love or care. The symbol we have today, though, looks nothing like the anatomy of a real human heart.
So what are the origins of this icon? There are quite a few theories surrounding its origins.
Before the 14th century, the heart icon was not associated with the heart and had a completely different use–as decor to represent fig leaves, ivy or water lilies and other foliage. The symbol was used in paintings, art and decor.
At the time, the Catholic Church banned dissection of humans. So if medieval artists wanted to depict a heart, they would have to rely on Aristotle’s description of the organ: three chambers with a depression in the middle. Today, we know the human heart has two chambers, and some speculate that Aristotle’s heart was based on that of an animal such as a bird or pig.
The first representation of a metaphorical heart was shown in the painting Li romanz de la poire, or romance of the pear, made in France in the 13th century. The painting pictures a groom giving a damsel his heart to her metaphorically but in the painting, he is shown giving her a pear, which oddly looks similar to the heart shape we are used to today. The theory is that other medieval artists during the 13th and 14th century saw this as a heart and copied the icon.
Around the 6th century BCE in the North African city of Cyrene, a certain plant, Silphium, held up the whole economy as it was sold in great quantities to the Romans and Greeks. Now extinct, Silphium was once used for many different things such as seasoning and medicine, and it was widely believed to be an early form of a contraceptive.
Silphium has a seed pod shaped like the heart icon we know today, which was used on coins in Cyrene. So some theorize the symbol came to be known with love because of Silphium’s connection as an aphrodisiac and contraceptive.
Modern-day theories include that the heart icon is two different hearts sewn together, with the joining of the hearts representing someone being inseparable from their love. Another, more scandalous theory is that the heart icon represents buttocks or another body part from the nether regions.
Celebrations of love around the world
Argentina: Valentine’s “week of sweetness” in July
France: Origin place of Valentine’s Day cards
Philippines: Gala event sponsored by government, young people get married.
Ghana: “Chocolate Day”
Bulgaria: San Trifon Zartan, “Day of Winemakers”
Wales: Jan. 25: “Day of San Dwynwen,” couples exchange handcrafted wooden spoons, dates back to 16th century.
South Korea: May 14: “Day of Roses.” June 14: “Day of Kisses.” Dec. 14: “Day of Hugs.” April 14: “Black Day,” where single people eat black noodles.
Spain: Oct. 9: Feast of Saint Dionysius, making of “macadora,” a type of marzipan figure. Men make them to give to female companions.
Miao Southwest China: March 15: “Sisters Meal.” Women wear silver accessories and cook various meals of colored rice, which are offered on silk fabric to young men walking on roads. Destiny of lovers depends on the object within the chosen rice. Two chopsticks = love. Clove of garlic = love over before it has begun.
Denmark: Friends and lovers exchange handmade cards with pressed white flowers called snowdrops.
Romania: Feb. 24: Young couples get engaged. Some pick flowers in the forest; others wash both faces with snow.
Estonia: Sobrapaev, friendship day for all types of love, including platonic and familial.
Japan: Women buy gifts and chocolates for male companions on Feb. 14. Men return favors a month later on “white day.”
Czech Republic: May 1: Young couples go to statue of poet Karol Hynek Macha, kiss under cherry trees for good luck.
Brazil: Dia dos Namorados, or “Lovers Day.” Family dinners are common on this day.
England: Women once placed five bay leaves on their pillows in order to dream of future husbands. In Norfolk, Jack Valentine acts as Santa Claus.
Velocity 
Leave a comment