With Valentine’s Day quickly approaching, people rush out to buy chocolate candies,  heart-shaped candies and bouquets for their significant others. People often associate Valentine’s Day with hearts and cupids in diapers shooting “love arrows” at people. However people celebrate Valentine’s Day without really knowing how or why it exists.

Celebrated by Western Cultures, Valentine’s Day has had religious origins. As History.com stated, Valentine’s Day has dated back to a fifth century Christian matyr, St. Valentine. However, it has been unknown which martyr was St. Valentine. One popular belief stated that St. Valentine was a priest during the third century in Rome under the rule of Emperor Claudius II. This was a time when soldiers were nonexistent, and the emperor thought single men, rather than married men, would fit the job of soldiers. Henceforth, marriage was outlawed. When the Roman-Catholic priest St. Valentine saw the injustice of this law, he defied the emperor and still performed marriages in secret for young couples. After the emperor discovered St. Valentine was defying his laws, he ordered St. Valentine to be killed. Furthermore, it has been quite apparent that St. Valentine was a “sympathetic, heroic and romantic figure”  as he broke unjust laws, for the benefit of the community, apathetic to the consequences.

As a matter of fact, people have wondered why Valentine’s Day has been celebrated in the middle of February. Some have argued that it was for the anniversary of St. Valentine’s death. Other historians from History.com have argued that it was an effort by the Catholic Church to “Christianize” the pagan holiday, Lupercalia. (Lupercalia  celebrated a fertility festival dedicated to the Roman gods.) Although this holiday has survived the initial effort, it was outlawed (for being unChristian) by the end of the fifth century. As a result, this was when Pope Gelasius declared February 14 as St. Valentine’s Day.

Moreover, by the eighteenth century, gift-giving and exchanging of romantic cards on Valentine’s Day became common in England, according to infoplease.com. This tradition quickly spread to the American colonies as well. Soon after spreading to America in the early seventeen hundreds, companies began mass-producing valentines, a tradition that has stayed with us to this day.

Although no one is quite certain of the origins of Valentine’s Day, Valentine’s Day is a holiday which has celebrated love and romance. Dating back to the fifth century, people have looked to St. Valentine for help ensuring their love.