Valentine's Day

Much of the material on this page is from Wikipedia's Valentine's Day page at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Valentine's_Day. As always, we recommend reading and researching Wikipedia for our advanced students and those students beyond TOEIC.

Saint Valentine's Day, more commonly known simply as Valentine's Day, falls annually on February 14. This is the traditional day when people tell the objects of their affection about their love, by sending Valentine's cards and sometimes candy, flowers or other romantic gifts. These gifts can be anonymous. (Have you ever seen the Peanuts cartoons with such anonymous Valentine's Day cards?) 

The history of Valentine's Day can be traced back to a Catholic Church feast day, one in honor of Saint Valentine. It wasn't until after the High Middle Ages that Valentine's Day became associated with romantic love. It was then that the idea of courtly love, which had a large impact on the modern Western idea of love, began to be formulated.

The holiday is now most closely associated with the mutual exchange of love notes that are called "valentines." Modern Valentine symbols include the heart-shaped outline and the figure of the winged Cupid, and the colors red, pink and white are predominant. Since the 19th century, the practice of hand writing notes has largely given way to the exchange of mass-produced greeting cards. The Greeting Card Association estimates that, world-wide, approximately one billion valentine cards are sent each year, making the day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year, after Christmas. The association also estimates that women purchase approximately 85 percent of all valentines.

In the United States, Valentines Day has been aggressively marketed as another "Hallmark holiday." Hallmark is the largest American greeting card company. Referring to any holiday as a Hallmark holiday indicates that the holiday has become very commercialized. In the weeks leading up to Valentines Day, merchants profusely display for sale red, heart-shaped boxes of chocolates, stuffed teddy bears holding red hearts with "I Love You" embroidered on them, and all other manners of red, heart-shaped gewgaws.

Many St. Valentines

February 14 was traditionally dedicated to two ancient martyrs named Valentine. Martyrs are people who are killed for their beliefs. If you are interested in the history of all the Valentines, take a look on the Internet. Let it suffice to say that Valentine was a common name in Roman times. It comes from the Latin word for worthy (valens). (That Latin word, by the way, is the root of the English word, value!) There are at least fifty Christian martyrs with this name and the Catholic Church formally recognized a total of eleven Valentine's days including January 7, May 2, July 16, August 31, September 2, October 25, November 1 and 3, November 11 and 13, and December 16. 

Chaucer and love 

Despite the many St. Valentines, no connection between any St. Valentine and love is mentioned in early accounts of these saints' days. It is the practice of the Catholic Church to assign each day of the year to one or more saints. In medieval times, it was common to refer to a date by the name of one of the saints it was assigned to. The feast of St. Valentine was said to have been assigned to February 14 by Pope Gelasius I in 496. The link between February 14 and lovers may have arisen long after the date was named for Valentine and his deeds forgotten.

The earliest citation for "Valentine" in the Oxford English Dictionary is from Geoffrey Chaucer's Parliament of Fowles:

For this was on seynt Volantynys day
Whan euery bryd comyth there to chese his make.

If you are having trouble reading this "Old English," it says:

For this was on St. Valentine's Day
When every bride came there to chose his mate.

This poem was written to honor the first anniversary of the engagement of England's King Richard II to Anne of Bohemia. A treaty providing for their marriage was signed on May 2, 1381. On the traditional Catholic calendar, May 2 is listed as the feast day of St. Valentine. This St. Valentine was an early bishop of Genoa who died around 307 A.D. Readers incorrectly assumed that Chaucer was referring to February 14 as Valentine's Day. However, mid-February is an unlikely time for birds to be mating (at least in England). 

Other possible origins of Valentine's Day

There are other theories that connect Valentine's Day to fertility festivals held in ancient Greek and Roman times.

Medieval and modern times

In medieval England and France, it was common for lovers to exchange notes on this day and to refer to each other as their "valentines."

Using the language of the law courts for the rituals of courtly love, a "High Court of Love" was established in Paris on Valentine's Day in 1400. The court dealt with love contracts, betrayals, and violence against women. Judges were selected by women on the basis of a poetry reading.

The earliest surviving written valentine dates from 1415. It is a poem by Charles, Duke of Orleans, to his beloved wife. At the time, the duke was being held prisoner in the Tower of London, following his capture at the Battle of Agincourt. 

It is probable that many various legends about St. Valentine were invented during this period. These legends include the following:

" On the evening before St. Valentine was to be martyred for being a Christian, he passed a love note to his jailer's daughter that read, "From your Valentine."
" During a ban on marriages of Roman soldiers by the Emperor Claudius II, St. Valentine secretly helped arrange marriages.
" Valentine's Day is mentioned by the character Ophelia in Hamlet: "Tomorrow is Saint Valentine's Day."

Valentine's Day in North America

Valentine's Day likely was imported into North America in the 19th century along with British settlers. In the United States, the first mass-produced valentines of embossed paper lace were produced and sold shortly after 1847 by Esther Howland (1828-1904) of Worcester, Massachusetts. Her father operated a large book and stationery store, and Esther took her inspiration from an English valentine she had received. 

During the second half of the 20th century in the United States, the practice of exchanging cards was extended to include the giving of "romantic" gifts, usually from a man to a woman. Such gifts typically include roses and chocolates. In the 1980s, the diamond industry began to promote Valentine's Day as an occasion for giving jewelry. Women also give gifts to men on Valentine's Day.

The day has come to be associated with a generic platonic greeting of "Happy Valentine's Day." 

Those without a significant other often speak with sarcasm by referring to Valentine's Day as Singles' Awareness Day. They do not view Valentine's Day highly as it can be a rather lonely day to find oneself without a beloved or at least a love interest.

In many North American elementary schools, students are required to give a Valentine card or small gift to everyone in the class. The greeting cards of these students often mention what they appreciate about each other. Though this practice has been criticized for possibly being irrelevant or inappropriate, it has continued for decades.

In past years, students only gave cards to people who they liked. This became a popularity contest. Teachers and parents wanted to avoid hurting some students and this is why everyone became required to give cards to everyone.