Valentine’s Day: Know The History & Importance of This Beautiful Day

Valentine’s Day is the best occasion of the year for lovers all around the globe. It is celebrated every year on 14^th of February and is also known as St Valentine's Day in many countries.  The day is romantic, cheerful and full of fun. On this day people show their love and affection for another person. They do this by sending flowers, greeting cards, cakes, chocolates with a message of love.

Who is St. Valentine?

The day gets its name from a prominent saint – St. Valentine and there are numerous stories of who he was. But the popular belief about Saint Valentine is that he was a cleric from the city of Rome during the 3rd century AD.

At that time, King Claudius II had prohibited marriage because he believed that married men were not good soldiers. But St. Valentine felt this was unjust with the people, so he decided to break all the rules and conducted marriages in secret.

When King Claudius came to know about all this he sent Valentine to jail and later sentenced him to death.

Valentine in imprisonment fell in love with a girl and she was the daughter of the jailer there.  On 14^th February, Valentine was ordered to be killed and at that time he sent the girl a love letter signed "from your Valentine". And this is how everything started.

Though the truth behind the Valentine myths is not so clear but the stories surely emphasize his appeal as a brave, sympathetic and most importantly as a romantic figure. In the middle ages, Valentine was one of the most popular saints in France and England.

Interestingly the very first Valentine's Day was celebrated in the year 496!!!

Having a particular Valentine's Day is an old ritual, which was thought to have originated from a Roman festival. The Roman people celebrated a festival known as Lupercalia in the midst of February month - officially the beginning of their springtime.

It is also believed that as part of the festival, boys drew the names of girls from a box. After that they would be girlfriend and boyfriend during the entire celebration. And sometimes they even used to marry each other.

Afterwards, the church wanted to convert this festival into a Christian festivity and decided to use it to remember Saint Valentine. Slowly, people started using St Valentine's name to express their feelings to the ones they loved.

Happy Valentine’s Day to All!!!