The complex history of Valentine’s Day jessica conely Can’t buy love? Hallmark and Cartier disagree. Valentine’s Day is a key day in the commercial calendar, highly anticipated by department stores, who make sure to stock roses, chocolates, and jewelry. Behind all this commercialization, however, is a tangled history that traces back to Roman times. Having a day of romance is a very old tradition, thought to have originated from a Romdan festival called Lupercalia. It’s thought that as part of the celebrations, men drew names of women from a box. The couples would go on a date and soon after, if it went well, they would get married. In the year 270 A.D., Rome was battling on all fronts and Emperor Claudius II was having problems keeping his legions replenished. He knew married soldiers were not as valiant or vigorous on the battlefield, which led him to issue an edict outlawing marriage. The Christian saint Valentine married couples in secret, but the word made to Claudius and the priest was imprisoned, then beheaded. He was executed on Feb. 14, leaving a love letter behind signed “from your Valentine”. In the late 5th century, Pope Gelasius decided to repeal the holiday of Lupercalia and replace it with a celebration of Valentine, who he saw as a martyr. For centuries, Christians celebrated Valentine’s Day, which ultimately became associated with romance. The first Valentine’s Day card was sent by an imprisoned British man in the 1400s and authors like Shakespeare and Chaucer popularized the holiday through their works.
The holiday began resembling its modern consumer-oriented incarnation in the 17th and 18th centuries, as commoners exchanged cards and the aristocracy engaged in gifting elaborate presents to selected people called “Valentines,” according to the History Channel. What helped Valentine’s Day take root in the United States was an emerging consumer culture, which was boosted by advertising following developments in printing and mass production during the Industrial Revolution. In the following decades, the marketing machines of many companies turned their wheels to lure more and more customers into celebrating the holiday, and convince them to purchase valentines in the forms of cards, chocolates, flowers, and jewelry for their loved ones. Valentine’s Day has contributed to the way Western culture celebrates and expresses love, associating it more closely with the material. U.S. consumer spending for 2020 is excepted to total $27.4 billion, according to the National Retail Federation. “Valentine’s Day has turned into who can buy the most expensive something for their partner on a random day in February,” Meg Cotton, a junior, said. Gift giving has also always been an important tradition and generally, a romantic relationship comes inevitably with material and financial considerations. “My friend got her boyfriend a really cute gift, but I hate that it seems like an obligation to a lot of people,” Cotton said. Ultimately, the holiday we know as Valentine’s Day has a complex history that is often overlooked by its consumerist aspect.
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