Valentine’s Day means love and romance in many cultures, but the customs for celebrating it differ. Many of these traditions have paganistic and superstitious origins.
While we choose to focus our Valentine’s Day on the History of St. Valentine and on Jesus’ love for us – we find it interesting to study the traditions that led to today’s celebration.
Here are some facts about the “unusual” ways that people around the world have, or do, celebrate Valentine’s Day – Valentin
Early Europeans
Early Europeans believed that February 14 was the day that birds chose their mates. In keeping with the belief, groups of French boys and girls would gather to draw names. Boys drew the names of girls at random. Each boy would then pin his new sweetheart’s name to his sleeve. Hence, Valentine’s Day is literally a day to “wear your heart on your sleeve.”
Ancient Rome
The drawing of names to pick a mate has origins dating all the way back to the predawn of ancient Rome. A celebration called Lupercalia, meaning “Wolf Festival,” was held on February 15 to honor the god Lupercus, safe-keeper of shepherds and flocks. The festival was a heathenish rite to drive away evil spirits, in which men wore skins from sacrificed animals. During the barbarism, men drew the names of women from a box in order for them to pair up. The couple then stayed together at least until the next year’s celebration.
But where there is epic paganism, the Church historically seems to intervene. The church soon put an end to such pagan activities and changed the holiday to Saint Valentine’s Day, held on February 14.
England
A much-reformed variation on name drawing is the way English women in the 1700’s practiced finding a husband. They wrote the names of men they admired on slips of paper, rolled them up inside a clay ball, and dropped them into a container of water. They found their future husbands by retrieving the first ball to rise to the surface.
1700s Valentine’s Day
Some Valentine’s rituals were superstitious in nature. In the 1700s, unmarried women pinned five bay leaves to their pillows, and then before bedtime, they consumed hard-boiled eggs whose yolk cavity had been filled with salt. This supposedly conjured dreams of a future true love.
Britain and Italy
In Britain and Italy, young, unmarried women would get up early on Valentine’s Day morning to stand by their windows. If luck would have it, the first man to pass by such a woman’s window would become her husband within a year.
British women would also circle a church 12 times while chanting a rhyme to make their future beloved appear in a dream.
Love Birds
In some places, it was believed that the first bird seen on Valentine’s Day symbolized the type of man a woman would marry. Seeing a robin meant she would marry a sailor. A goldfinch meant she would marry into wealth, a bluebird meant she’d marry a happy man, and a sparrow meant her future husband would be a poor farmer. A dove signifies happiness with a loving man, but beware of the woodpecker… to see one on the lover’s day meant a woman would never marry.
Denmark – Valentine’s Day
Denmark’s custom is for the male to send a Valentine letter called gaekkebrev, or “joking letter” to his unbeknownst sweetheart. He writes a rhyme for her, but instead of a signature, he makes one dot for each letter of his name. If the female guesses who sent the letter to her, she will get an Easter Egg later in the year.
France
France once had what was known as a “drawing for” on Valentine’s Day. Unmarried men and women became pairs by going into houses that faced across a street from each other, and then calling back and forth from one window to the other. If a man didn’t like who he got paired with, he would abandon her. The woman would get so insulted that she would burn his image in a fire. This tradition was banned by the French government because it often brought about hostility.
Scotland
Valentine’s Day is celebrated with a festival in Scotland. An equal number of unmarried men and women draw names and couple up. The females pin their male suitor’s names over their hearts and the festival often ends with marriages being performed. Also, single Scottish men and women customarily become Valentines whenever they meet by a chance encounter on Valentine’s Day. A love-knot is a traditional gift given to a true love on that day.
Japan and Korea
Japan and Korea celebrate Valentine’s Day with fashions similar to each other. The woman is the one giving gifts to the man, instead of vice versa. Boxes of chocolate are the customary gift and women purchase it for every man close to them. No male is excluded as the woman buys chocolates for her male friends, family, boss, and even co-workers. A larger, more expensive box is typically given to the special man in her life. A month later, on March 14, “White Day” allows the favor to be returned as it becomes the male’s turn to buy and give the goodies to the woman. In Korea, White Day is often when a man confesses his love for a woman. The holiday continues on, still another month later on “Black Day,” which is set aside for those who didn’t have sweethearts on White Day.
Taiwan – Valentine’s Day
Flowers are very significant for Valentine’s Day in Taiwan. The color and the number of roses given to a woman shows the man’s intentions. One red rose means “an only love,” ninety-nine roses is “forever,” and one hundred and eight roses means “marry me.” If a woman receives eleven roses, it means she is “a favorite.”
First Valentine’s Day Poem
For centuries, sending cards, and writing and reciting romantic verse has been one of the most popular Valentine’s Day customs in the world. The oldest known Valentine’s poem was written in 1415, by Charles, Duke of Orleans, to his wife while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London. The poem, which still exists today, led the way for the simplest of love-smitten verses. You have heard of “Roses are red, violets are blue, sugar is sweet, and so are you.” to classic Shakespeare. The cards have also gone through many phases. From nuns who hand-cut intricate paper lace to the machine age of mass-produced cards, and everything in-between. Today, more than one billion Valentine’s cards are sent each year.
Valentine’s Day is acknowledged and celebrated in many cultures and its history has been shaped by a great array of customs and superstitions. Yet, in all, one fact is the same – The day has been reserved for romantic expression. The English poet, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, expressed it famously, “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.”
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