Known as the day to celebrate romance and love, the origins of this festival of candy and cupids are actually dark, bloody-and a bit muddled. Though no one has pinpointed the exact origin of the holiday, one place to start is ancient Rome. First people celebrated the feast of Lupercalia, then the men sacrificed goats and dogs, then began to whip women with the hides of the animal they just sacrificed. In the article The Dark Origins of Valentine’s Day it states,“ The roman romantics were drunk and they were naked.” Noel Lenski,  now a religious studies professor at Yale University, told NPR in 2011 that “young women would line up for the men to hit them. They  believed it would make them fertile.” The brutal fete also had a matchmaking lottery with young men who would draw names of young women from a jar. Then that couple would then be together for the rest of the night or longer if the match was right.Romans were also responsible for the modern day name of love. Emperor Claudius the eleventh executed two men who were both named valentine.

On February 14 of a different year in the 3rd century, the Romans martyrdom was honored by the Catholic church with the celebration of  St.Valentine’s Day. Later, Pope Gelasius muddled things in the fifth century making St.Valentine’s Day with Lupercalia to expel the pagan rituals. But the fishtail was more of a theatrical interpretation of what it once was. It was more drunken revel, but the Christians put clothes back on it. That didn’t stop it from being a day of fertility and love.Around the same time the Normans celebrated Galatians day. Galatians day meant “lover of women” and that’s likely confused with St.Valentine’s day at some point because they sounded alike. As time went on the holiday grew sweeter. Chaucer and Shakespeare romanticized it in their work,and it became famous in Britain and all over Europe. Handmade cards became the prize du jour in the middle ages. Over time the tradition made its way to a new world. The Industrial Revolution ushered in factory-made cards in the 1900s. In 1913,Hallmark cards of Kansas City, Mo., began mass- production. Valentine’s in February has not been the same since. Valentine’s Day now is a big business but that is commercialized. Helen Fisher, a sociologist at Rutgers University said, “we only have ourselves to blame. This isn’t a command performance. “If people didn’t want to buy the Hallmark cards, they wouldn’t be bought and the Hallmark would go out of business.” 

So the celebration of Valentine’s day goes on, in varied ways. Many will break the bank buying jewelry and flowers for their beloved. Some will celebrate in a SAD ( single awareness day) way, by dining alone and binging on self-gifted chocolates, while others will find a way in a society that wants everyone to partner up. In my opinion, Valentine’s Day is supposed to be a romantic day where you get your loved ones flowers to show that you love them. For me on the other hand I believe that you shouldn’t dedicate one day to do something sweet for someone you love. Because if you love them like you say you do every year on one day why don’t you get them sweets and nice stuff on a regular basis? Therefore I feel that Valentine’s day should be a holiday.