Valentine's Day

by HB Paksoy

To-morrow is Saint Valentine's day,

 All in the morning betime, 

 And I a maid at your window, 

 To be your Valentine.

William Shakespeare, Ophelia 

 in Hamlet (1623); Act 4, Scene 5. 

Good morrow, friends. 

Saint Valentine is past:

 Begin these wood-birds 

 but to couple now?

William Shakespeare

A midsummer Night’s Dream (1600)

 Act 4, Scene 1.

Before Shakespeare, Valentine’s Day was immortalized by Chaucer in his The Parliament of Fowls (c.1381): “Seynt Valentynes day is whan every foul (fowl) cometh ther to chese (choose) his make (mate).” Before then, it was a pagan day called Lupercalia, dedicated to the Roman deity Luper, which was believed to bestow fertility.  Anyone want a baby?  The Romans celebrated by actions all of which are regarded criminal in our day, including striking---beating---women, eating dogs, running naked.  All this took place every year on February fourteen.

The church leadership was outraged that the populations still celebrated Luper.  So, the higher heads decided to substitute a martyr (Valentine) and declared it a day of feast.  Since there were several Valentines who were martyred, we do not know which one.  However, food almost always triumphs. The day of fertility acquired the formal greeting cards in 1913.  By commercialization of invitation to intimacy, the immortality of February fourteen was thus secured.