What is Valentine's Day and how did it start?
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What is Valentine's Day and how did it start?
Today is Valentine's Day, a day dedicated to all things L-O-V-E!
Valentine's Day, which is also known as St Valentine's Day, is celebrated every year on the 14 February around the world.
For many, it's a special time in the year when people show their affection for another person or people by sending cards, flowers or chocolates with messages of love.
Valentine's Day is really popular, but what's it actually all about? Read on to find out more!
Who was St Valentine?
A a statue of St Valentine, inside Whitefriar Church in Dublin
The day gets its name from a famous saint, but we don't actually know exactly who Valentine was.
There are several stories about this, and they're all very different.
A popular belief about St Valentine is that he was a priest from Rome in the third century AD.
This is the oldest known Valentine's Day message in English. It was written in 1477
Emperor Claudius II and his army were involved in many battles, but he believed Roman men who were married didn't make very good soldiers as they weren't very keen on going to war and leaving their wives and families behind.
The ruler decided to ban marriage, a move which Valentine thought was unfair, so he broke the rules and arranged marriages in secret.
When Claudius found out, Valentine was thrown in jail and sentenced to death.
Legend has it that he fell in love with the jailer's daughter and when he was taken to be killed on 14 February he sent her a love letter signed "from your Valentine".
Other accounts suggest St Valentine was killed for trying to help Christians who were being poorly treated under Emperor Claudius II's rule escape from Roman prisons.
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How did Valentine's Day start?
Having a particular Valentine's Day is a very old tradition which is thought to have originated from a Roman festival.
The Romans had a festival called Lupercalia in the middle of February - officially the start of their springtime - and the occasion was marked by lots of different rituals.
The first Valentine's Day was in the year 496 AD!
What's your special Valentine's message for your loved ones?
One belief is that, as part of the celebrations, boys drew names of girls from a box.
They'd be boyfriend and girlfriend during the festival and sometimes they'd get married. However, it's not known whether this is actually true.
Later on, the church wanted to turn this festival into a Christian celebration and decided to use it to remember St Valentine too.
Gradually, St Valentine's name started to be used by people to express their feelings to those they loved.
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