What is the story of Valentine’s Day

There were many narratives about the origin, date, and reasons that led to its creation, including the following accounts:

The story of the monk and the jailer’s daughter

The story of Valentine’s Day dates back to the third century AD, and it is linked to a Roman Emperor named Claudius II, and a Christian man named Valentinus. Whereas Emperor Claudius had ordered the Romans to worship twelve gods, and he forbade dealing with people who profess Christianity and considered it a punishable offense, yet Monk Valentinus gave his life to Christianity and to live within the confines of its beliefs; Following the Lord Christ, he used to practice all his worship and what he believed in, and he did not fear anyone in that, so he was arrested and put in prison.

In his last life in prison, the jailer asked Valentinus to teach his daughter some sciences, after he knew the extent of his knowledge, and Valentinus agreed to that. The girl was called Julia, and she was blind since birth, but that did not prevent Valentinus from teaching her. Because she was witty, he explained the world to her, narrated the history and stories of Rome to her, taught her arithmetic, and confided in her about the existence of God, so she trusted him and was influenced by what he taught her. He was her eye with which she saw the world around her, and she asked him one day about the fact that God heard her prayers while she was praying, as she used to pray and pray to regain her eyesight to see what she had learned with her eyes, and he answered her that if she believed in God, God would do the best for her, then she said that she believed in him Then he stood with her after that and prayed, and during the prayer, her sight returned.

On the last night before Valentinus’s death, he wrote a note to Julia urging her to stay close to God, and signed at the end of the letter: (From your Valentine (your love)), then the death sentence was executed on the fourteenth of February of the year 270 AD, Next to a gate that was later called Porta Valentini in commemoration of his story, and after Valentinus was buried in a famous church in Rome known at the time as Praxides, Julia planted an almond tree next to his grave, which was blooming with a pink flower, as this tree symbolizes love, loyalty, and friendship. Every year on the fourteenth of February, the world exchanged messages of love, devotion, and passionate feelings.

Facts about Valentine’s Day

• On Valentine’s Day, more than fifty million red roses are exchanged around the world.
• Seventy-three men give roses to their partners, while the percentage for women is only twenty-seven percent, and this indicates that men are affected by this occasion, and they seek to satisfy their partners through it.
• Recent studies have shown that the average amount that men spend buying gifts for Valentine’s Day is 158 dollars, while women spend about 75 dollars only.
• February is the first month among the favorite months for engagement and the marriage ceremony between lovers.
• The most disappointing gift for men is flower bouquets, and for women it is a gym membership card.
• The cherry tomatoes remained a symbol of Valentine’s Day until 1920.
• The red ribbons attached to gift boxes on Valentine’s Day date back to the Middle Ages, when they were given by the girlfriends of warrior men after their return from the battlefield, in the belief that they would bring good luck.
• Richard Cadbury launched the first box of chocolates on Valentine’s Day, and that was in 1868.

show less