Single thick pink aromatic candle on white openwork paper napkin on gray background side closeup view
Valentine’s
Day: A Day of Romance Lupercalia survived the initial rise of
Christianity but was outlawed—as it was deemed “un-Christian”–at the end
of the 5th century, when Pope Gelasius declared February 14 St.
Valentine’s Day. It was not until much later, however, that the day
became definitively associated with love. During the Middle Ages, it was
commonly believed in France and England that February 14 was the
beginning of birds’ mating season, which added to the idea that the
middle of Valentine’s Day should be a day for romance. The English poet
Geoffrey Chaucer was the first to record St. Valentine’s Day as a day of
romantic celebration in his 1375 poem “Parliament of Foules,” writing,
““For this was sent on Seynt Valentyne’s day / Whan every foul cometh
ther to choose his mate.” Valentine greetings were popular as far back
as the Middle Ages, though written Valentine’s didn’t begin to appear
until after 1400. The oldest known valentine still in existence today
was a poem written in 1415 by Charles, Duke of Orleans, to his wife
while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London following his capture at
the Battle of Agincourt. (The greeting is now part of the manuscript
collection of the British Library in London, England.) Several years
later, it is believed that King Henry V hired a writer named John
Lydgate to compose a valentine note to Catherine of Valois.
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