“Love-a wildly misunderstood although highly desirable malfunction of the heart which weakens the brain, causes eyes to sparkle, cheeks to glow, blood pressure to rise and the lips to pucker.” -Unknown

As we come to the official day of love, and witness crazy make-ups, hook-ups and break-ups (okay, not so many break-ups, but it is part of my -ups vocabulary), we must take a glance back to the past in the hopes of discovering how it all came to be.

According to the Greeting Card Association, approximately one billion Valentine cards are sent each year. A bit of useless but interesting information: about 85% of all Valentine’s cards are purchased by women. This is second only to Christmas in number of greeting cards sent!

The history of Valentine’s Day goes back to Christian and ancient Roman tradition, but exactly where it started is unclear. A long time ago (this is an official date, you know), Emperor Claudius II theorized that single soldiers were better than those with wives and children. I guess he thought that people without attachments were more likely to enlist and be less whiny about going home. Whatever the reason, he outlawed marriage for young men.

Valentine, a catholic priest, realized the cruelty of the decree and performed marriages in secret. Claudius found out about Valentine’s actions and sentenced him to death.

Another theory is that Valentine was arrested for helping Christian martyrs (or shall I say martyrs-to-be?). After refusing to give up the Christian faith he was beaten to death with clubs and beheaded by the Prefect of Rome. He became the patron saint of epilepsy, because he suffered from it in life. Before his death, according to one legend, Valentine sent the first “Valentine” greeting to his jailor’s daughter. He signed it, “From your Valentine”, a saying that is still used today.

So why Feb. 14? Some believe that the day commemorates the anniversary of Valentine’s death or burial, which occurred around 269 CE (Why not start calling it the Valentine Memorial?).

Another idea is that the Christian church was trying to Christianize the pagan ceremonies of the Lupercalia festival. Lupercalia was a fertility festival dedicated to to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture. They would go around sacrificing goats and dogs, then spraying the blood on crops and women (the women were not afraid of this and considered it a way of becoming more fertile).

They also had a lottery system in which women would put their names in jars for eligible men to pick from. The couple would then hookup for the duration of the year (Today we use more sophisticated measures such as Spark Match and Blind Date).

Pope Gelasius declared Feb. 14 St. Valentine’s Day around 498 CE. The Roman lottery system for romantic pairings was called “unchristian” and outlawed (sounds like “someone” drew the wrong name a bit too many times). Interestingly enough I find no reference to the goat sacrificing stuff, but I assume from personal experience that it was dropped too). People began to accept the idea of praising Valentine instead of Lupercus, and eventually the festivals lost sight of their Roman origins.