Origin of Love
Well today is the day of love. The western worlds celebration of a martyred saint through the giving of flowers and chocolates and stupid heart shaped stuffed creatures. Though there is nothing loving or romantic about St. Valentine the tradition of love seems to have been carried through the years. Possibly it was a a throwback to the Greco-roman celebration of Gamelian, which was a month long celebration of the marriage of Zeus and Hera. But despite potential polytheistic origins, we can mainly attribute our celebration of Valentines Day to Chaucer.

The first recorded association of Valentine’s Day with romantic love is in Parlement of Foules (1382) by Geoffrey Chaucer:[5]

‘For this was on seynt Volantynys day
Whan euery bryd comyth there to chese [choose] his make [mate].’

This poem was written to honor the first anniversary of the engagement of King Richard II of England to Anne of Bohemia. source

Following Chaucer’s newly created tradition of courtly love developed a true “high court of love”

Using the language of the law courts for the rituals of courtly love, a “High Court of Love” was established in Paris on Valentine’s Day in 1400. The court dealt with love contracts, betrayals, and violence against women. Judges were selected by women on the basis of a poetry reading. source

It is a comfort to think that within the celebration of love there is a protection of women and relationships.

In 1969 the Roman Church took Valentines Day off their saints calendar. Though St. Valentine was buried on the 14th of February, they could find no other reason. The official reason was:

“Though the memorial of Saint Valentine is ancient, it is left to particular calendars, since, apart from his name, nothing is known of Saint Valentine except that he was buried on the Via Flaminia on 14 February.” - alendarium Romanum ex Decreto Sacrosancti Œcumenici Concilii Vaticani II Instauratum Auctoritate Pauli PP. VI Promulgatum (Typis Polyglottis Vaticanis, MCMLXIX), p. 117″

However, it was in the mid 1800’s when the tradition, as we know it today, was started.

The reinvention of Saint Valentine’s Day in the 1840s has been traced by Leigh Eric Schmidt. In the United States, the first mass-produced valentines of embossed paper lace were produced and sold shortly after 1847 by Esther Howland of Worcester, Massachusetts. Her father operated a large book and stationery store, but Howard took her inspiration from an English valentine she had received, so clearly the practice of sending Valentine’s cards had existed in England before it became popular in North America. The English practice of sending Valentine’s cards appears in Elizabeth Gaskell’s Mr. Harrison’s Confessions (published 1851). Since 2001, the Greeting Card Association has been giving an annual “Esther Howland Award for a Greeting Card Visionary.”

Thanks to Esther, Valentines has become the second largest card sending holiday of the year, leading to revenues exceeding $1 billion dollars. It is also estimated that 85% of the senders are women. Isn’t today the day that men are supposed to romance women? That seems to be more of an urban legend, at least according to the Greeting Card statistics.

Valentines Day is also known as Singles Awareness Day (SAD). This is a day where singles get together and celebrate and commiserate being single. They often wish one another “Happy SAD!” It is also a rejection of the “commercialization” of Valentines day.

So if you are celebrating Valentines day or wishing someone Happy Sad, if you participate, make people feel good about what they have instead of bad about what they don’t. It is a day of love, not I’m in a relationship now let me shove it in your single face and make you feel bad.