Valentine’s Day is one of America’s more commercialized holidays, and is one that is widely practiced. Cards, candy and velvet red characterize and complete the holiday. Interviews with several Community High students proved the idea that, with minimal variation, most students share the same “ideal Valentine’s Day.” The flowers, the candies, and the cards are deeply ingrained in western culture, but their histories are not unexplained. Behind each one of these symbols, each so widely understood as essential to Valentines Day, exists a history.
The holiday gets its name from Saint Valentine, a man known for performing marriages for those who had been forbidden to wed during the age of the Roman Empire. This man, however is also responsible for the practice of sending cards to loved ones. Rumor has it that before his execution, he sent an epistle to a loved one with the epithet, “From your Valentine”.
As the holiday gained popularity in the middle ages, flowers and sweets began to accompany the letters. The poet Geoffrey Chaucer greatly influenced this movement with his poetry, solidifying the association between Saint Valentine and romantic love. Valentine’s Day was one of the earliest holidays to become commercialized in America. Decorated cards were being produced beginning in the late 1800s.
Valentine’s Day is astounding in that engaging in it seems to be almost instinctual and compulsory. Even the critics acknowledge the iconoclastic “perfect Valentine’s Day”, though they choose to reject it. It all seems ritualistic as if some sort of mating dance driven by the weight of historical precedence. How could you not get caught up in the love?
