Origin of Valentine's Day, should a Christian celebrate it?

It all began in 495 with Pope Gelasius. He was the one who declared February 14th the feast of St. Valentine. Which Valentine was he referring to? There were three possible candidates: one, an African who had suffered martyrdom in Africa, the second, a bishop of Interamna, now Terni, and the third, a priest from Rome. Some even confuse the three stories.

So what happened?

It seems that Emperor Claudius had the wicked idea of banning marriages in order to have at his disposal single men whom he could send to war. It was a turbulent time for Rome, and marriage, in Claudius's eyes, made men reluctant to go to war.

We are told that people would seek help from Valentine, a priest, and he began marrying them in secret. He believed the edict was unbiblical. These activities soon came to the attention of the authorities, and he was arrested and imprisoned. He subsequently suffered martyrdom. He stood up for the right to marriage in accordance with God's Word and paid for it with his life. He is said to have written a note to his jailer's daughter before his death, signing it 'your Valentine.'

The pagan festival

Where the waters get murky is the potential connection with the pagan festival of Lupercus, a fertility festival held in mid-February. According to some sources, men ran naked through the streets carrying a whip, which they administered to willing women. They believed they could thus conceive a child or safely deliver a child to those who were already pregnant.

It is also claimed that the priests this time sacrificed a goat and a dog in a purification sacrifice and then ran through the streets, holding the goat's skin in their hands and using it to touch women seeking fertility. Pope Gelasius is said to have banned this holiday before declaring February 14th the feast of Saint Valentine, without specifying which Valentine he was referring to. Was he trying to distract people from the pagan festival? However, the connection between the two is far from proven.

So where does the romantic aspect come from?

The English poet Chaucer (author of The Canterbury Tales) is widely considered the first to evoke Saint Valentine's Day as a day linked to romantic love. In one poem, he writes of the royal betrothal that took place on Valentine's Day, a day when every bird came to choose its mate. Some dispute this, claiming that this was another Valentine whose feast day fell in May, a more propitious season for such activity. However, two centuries later, the association between love and February 14 was well established, as evidenced by this phrase from Shakespeare's Hamlet that gives Valentine's Day a distinctly romantic connotation: “To-morrow is Saint Valentine's day,/All in the morning betime,/And I a maid at your window,/To be your Valentine.”

What about cards and gifts?

The very first Valentine's Day love note is said to have been sent by Charles, Duke of Orléans, to his wife in 1415 from his prison in the Tower of London following his capture at the Battle of Agincourt. However, it was the English who popularized the sending of love notes on Valentine's Day a few centuries later.

In the 19th century, with the improvement of printing technology, Valentine's Day cards began to be mass-produced and made their way to the United States. A woman named Esther Howland, who ran her father's bookstore/stationery shop, saw one and decided to produce them herself. This spread to America and eventually the rest of the world.

Should Christians Celebrate Valentine's Day?

Valentinus was undoubtedly a man of valor, but we know that all of God's children are considered saints in God's Word, those who have been set apart. So celebrating a saint is not biblical. Then, as for the connection with the pagan festival, that is not a certainty. What matters, in my opinion, is what it means for us today. Since it is a commemoration of love and not a veneration of a saint, there is no biblical reason not to celebrate it.

How to celebrate it? It's a personal choice. In many places, it's a celebration among friends, in the sense of agape. Messages are sent to friends, not just spouses or fiancés.

We just need to avoid wasting resources and being harried by mercantile tradition. There's no reason to spend unnecessarily. Love must be demonstrated every day between friends and within a couple. Show those you love that they are precious to you, every day, and don't let the vultures separate you from your money while they exploit the day to fill their pockets. Everyone should also avoid pressuring their loved ones to spend money unnecessarily because it's Valentine's Day.

I would like to invite you to make Jesus your Valentine. Take some extra time to worship Him and pour out your love on Him. He will honor you for it. Shalom!

http://abba-house.org/rencontre-speciale/

The English version of this article can be found here