The legends originated with the Catholic Church because Valentine's Day is named after one of three saints in the church with the name Valentine or Valentinus. In fact, all three of the saints were believed to be martyred, or prosecuted because of their religious or other beliefs. Of the most popular legends that exist, it begins with St. Valentine who was a priest during third century Rome. While he was a priest, Rome was under the rule of Emperor Claudius II. This emperor decided that single men were better soldiers than those who had wives and families were; therefore, because he believed this, he decided to outlaw marriage. Valentine became aware of how cruel this action was and decided to disobey Claudius. As a result, Valentine began performing marriages in secrecy for young lovers; however, Claudius became aware of what Valentine was doing and ordered him to death.
Now, even though that's just one of the few legends that exist regarding the origination of Valentine's Day, it remains the most popular. Valentine's Day today is nothing like that. Well, I can't say nothing because yes, people still elope and get married in secrecy and go against their parents, not necessarily and emperor, but nobody gets put to death and/or told they can't get married for war-like reasons. Today, Valentine's Day is celebrated on February 14th (the day believed to be the death or burial of St. Valentine) in the United States and across the world, although it is not recognized as an actual holiday in other parts of the world. I'm not knowledgeable on how the day is celebrated in other parts of the world; however, I do know what the holiday brings to the U.S..
In the U.S., Valentine's Day is celebrated by people of all ages; the celebrations begin when you're in kindergarten and continue throughout adulthood. As children, we were able to experience the Valentine's Day parties that took place at school. This was the party where we got to burden our parents with having to buy us decorations to put on an old shoe box to shove our valentine's in that we would all just end up throwing out after the party was over. We would wrap our shoe boxes in some aluminum foil or red tissue paper, glue some pipe cleaners on, and stick some Styrofoam hearts on to make it look somewhat presentable. I was never one to go all out on these boxes; however, I do remember a few very elaborate boxes that you just knew the kids mom helped decorate. Whenever my mom tried to help me she would always do it the wrong way, I would get mad, and that would be the end of her helping me. But continuing on, there were more to these parties than just the boxes we made to stick our valentine's in that we received from our classmates; it was playing games, giving and receiving valentine's from your friends, feasting upon conversational hearts, and decorating heart shaped cookies that we would devour in no time. As kids we always wanted the newest, fanciest, and usually the most expensive valentine's to give out to our friends. I know I was guilty of picking out the valentine's that had the best saying on them or the best piece of candy on them and giving those to my friends and the people I liked. Looking back though, I realize I probably wasn't the only one to do that, but it was an immature action on my part. The tradition of Valentine's Day parties lasted all the way up until fifth grade and slowly faded away because we were growing up and the school slowly began to take holiday parties away altogether because they wasted time for educational opportunities. Even though kids today may not get to experience these parties, I'm glad I was able to because they were just something simple that created many memories.
To move on from children, teens and adults celebrate Valentine's Day as well. They don't celebrate by decorating cookies and shoe boxes and handing out Hello Kitty valentines, instead they take it more seriously because they are actually at the age to be experiencing love or to be in love. People today go out of their way to make Valentine's Day extremely special considering it is the holiday of romance love. Adults and teens most commonly buy chocolates and/or flowers for their significant other or the person they are crushing on. Red roses are most commonly associated with this holiday because the color red signifies love, and any kind of chocolate is appropriate to give on this day because who doesn't like chocolate? Another gift given to each other by people of this age are cards. Valentine's Day is the second most popular card giving holiday next to Christmas, of course. On Valentine's Day though, it doesn't take much for someone to do something for someone they love or like. It's as simple as going to the local drug store, picking up a simple card with a sweet saying inside, and buying them a chocolate bar or a bag of Reese Cup hearts. Along with going out and buying gifts, making DIY (Do It Yourself) gifts has become extremely popular amongst people. The amount of gifts that could be handmade is endless and most of them are very clever and sweet. Gifts like these hold more sentimental value and are more likely to last longer than a dozen roses or a chocolate bar.
With all that being said, it is clear that Valentine’s Day
is not what it used and the people back then probably never thought it would
evolve to be what it is today. It all started with a man marrying two people
that were in love with each other, and now includes people of all ages doing
many different activities. Yes, people who are in love and people who get
married are still associated with the holiday, but today it has evolved to be so much more
than that.
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