Valentine's Day: From Ancient Rituals to Modern Love

While digging into Valentine's Day for this blog, I learned that Valentine's Day started as a wild Roman festival called Lupercalia, which featured animal sacrifices and some questionable "fertility rituals." Nothing says romance like being whipped with goat skins (seriously, you can't make this up). The festival also included a matchmaking lottery — a sort of ancient Tinder, but with less swiping and more animal hides.

Later, the church decided to clean things up by slapping a saint's name on it. Enter Saint Valentine, who played secret matchmaker after the emperor banned marriages to draft more soldiers. He got caught, jailed, and supposedly wrote the first ever "From your Valentine" card before his execution. Romantic? Maybe. Holy? Not so much.

Now, people of every faith (or no faith at all) buy cards, chocolate, and flowers. But honestly, do we really need a commercial holiday to remind us to show love? Shouldn't that happen the other 364 days of the year? This has become a holiday for selling greeting cards and making wallets lighter. Hallmark must love this day — Americans alone spend over $27 billion just to say "I love you" with overpriced stuff.

I suggest we do take Valentine's Day as a prompter to tell others — romantic interests or otherwise — that we love them. I like what Bono (U2) wrote: "Love is a temple, Love the higher law."

Instead of dismissing Valentine's Day altogether, maybe we can use it as a reminder — a chance to express love not only to romantic partners but to anyone we care about. As Bono from U2 puts it, "Love is a temple, love the higher law." Perhaps the true spirit of the holiday is about honoring love in all its forms, not just on February 14th, but every day of the year.