Valentine's Day Has A Surprisingly Dark And Bloody History

While you may be snuggling up with some flowers and chocolate, it turns out Valentine's Day has some pretty dark origins.

It's the so-called Hallmark holiday, a day for love letters, sweet treats and last-minute gifts, but Valentine's Day wasn't always so sweet.

In fact, the celebration is said to have started with beheadings, goat sacrifices and an unrelenting emperor so, you know, a typical Monday in ancient Rome.

Saint Valentine (Alamy)

So, how did the holiday start?

Well, Valentine's Day is a celebration of Saint Valentine, a martyr in the Catholic Church. However, Saint Valentine may have been one of three Valentines, all of whom died at the hands of Emperor Claudius II, as the Mirror points out.

The first Valentine was a romantic priest who went against Claudius's order to ban soldiers from marrying. Claudius believed single men made better troops.

Instead, this Valentine married the soldiers in secret, which lead to his sentence of death by beheading.

Next was the bishop Valentine, who was also beheaded by Claudius, while the third Valentine was said to have helped Christians escape Roman prisons.

This Valentine was then arrested and said to have written to his beloved from his cell, signing the letter, 'from your Valentine.'

Due to the lack of records at this time, it is hard to tell whether Saint Valentine was one, or all three, of these men.

Valentine's Day (Alamy)

So, the holiday and the three Valentine stories have since become intertwined with the celebration.

Just as the figure of Saint Valentine is marred by history, so is the day we celebrate.

Some have suggested that the day is to commemorate Saint Valentine's death, while others have argued that it is a replacement for the festival Lupercalia.

Lupercalia was a Roman fertility festival, in which priests would gather at a cave where the founders of Rome, brother Romulus and Remus, were said to have been raised by a wolf.

At the cave, the priests sacrificed a goat and a dog. They then dipped goat hide in blood and lightly slapped women with it, in an effort to increase fertility, which makes those petrol station chocolates look like pure luxury.

Valentine's Day (Alamy)

According to research undertaken by fashion retailer ISAWITFIRST, Brits are expected to spend £40 on average this Valentine's day, which we'd argue is cheaper than a goat.

The study also found that one in 10 people claim to buy their male partner flowers, which, let's be honest, is still shockingly low.

Everyone likes flowers, or chocolates for that matter, just maybe not sacrificing goats at a cave.

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Shola Lee

Shola Lee began her journalism career while studying for her undergraduate degree at Queen Mary, University of London and Columbia University in New York. She has written for the Columbia Spectator, QM Global Bloggers, CUB Magazine, UniDays, and Warner Brothers' Wizarding World Digital. Recently, Shola took part in the 2021 BAFTA Crew and BBC New Creatives programme before becoming a journalist at UNILAD, where she works on breaking news, trending stories, and features.