History and origin of Valentine's Day

There have been many interpretations of the origins of holidays and how they came to be. None of these interpretations are wrong, they are that, interpretations. When I was an editor for a small college newspaper, I researched various holidays and their origins. I wrote a compilation of the various origins and not of one particular belief or of one specific ethnic origin. However, for Valentine's Day, this story and its origin has not changed. So I share this story with my fellow readers.

The history of Valentine's Day dates back to the Roman Empire. This day was a celebration of the Queen of Roman Goddesses and Gods, Juno. Juno represented the Goddess of women and marriage. On February 14th the young men and women would write a name on a slip of paper and place them in ajar. Later in the day the names were pulled one by one and each pair was matched. Legend says that these paired couple would fall in love.

Claudius, Emperor of the Roman Empire had come to ban this day from being celebrated any longer. He said that the men would not want to leave lover's and families to off to war. St. Valentine was a Roman Priest and went behind Claudius's back and married couple's secretly. Claudius became aware of this and ordered St. Valentine place in jail.

His jailer's daughter befriended St. Valentine during his time in jail. The jailer had brought his daughter to see him in the hopes that he could make her see again. St. Valentine prayed for her continuously and slowly began to fall in love with her. Claudius heard of this and ordered St. Valentine executed on February 14th. On St. Valentine's last day he simply wrote a heartfelt note to his beloved saying "from your Valentine."

Legend has it that after St. Valentine was executed, the jailer's daughter was able to see again. It was said because St.Valentine and her loved each other so much. So from that day forth, the romance of the story has been handed down and procalimed to be simply known as Valentine's Day. In honor of St. Valentine and his love for the jailer's daughter.

Through the years we have come to know many symbols that represent Valentine's Day. Cupid is a mischievous, small winged child who pierces hearts of unsuspecting victims. This was done to make these couples fall in love.

Roses are symbols of love, war, peace and forgiveness. The white rose is for true love, red roses are for passion, yellow roses are for friendship and black roses are for the dearly departed.

Valentine's Day has come to represent a true testament to lovers.