Valentine’s Day 2025: history of the holiday and traditions of celebrating Valentine’s Day
13 February 01:12
Every year on February 14, Valentine’s Day is celebrated, also known as Valentine’s Day. This holiday serves as an additional opportunity to demonstrate feelings for your partner or confess your sympathy to the person you like. Read about the most common traditions of celebration and the origin of this holiday in the "Komersant Ukrainian" article
How this holiday came about – the history of Valentine’s Day
There are several theories about the origin of this holiday, but the most popular is the legend of the Roman priest Valentine, who secretly married lovers in the third century. At that time, the emperor of the Roman Empire was Claudius II, who issued a decree banning marriages during the war. He believed that family life distracted soldiers from their service, and the priest Valentyn secretly performed wedding ceremonies, for which the emperor imprisoned him and later sentenced him to death.
However, while in prison, Valentyn fell in love with the jailer’s daughter, who was blind. The priest, who had some knowledge of medicine, was able to perform a “miracle” and his beloved regained her sight. In addition, the girl’s entire family began to profess Christianity. Upon learning of this, Emperor Claudius II ordered the beheading of the priest. On the eve of the execution, Valentine wrote a love letter in poetic form for his beloved, which he signed: “Your Valentine”. Later, such letters were called valentines.
on February 14, 269, the priest Valentine was executed, and the holiday of all lovers was introduced to honor his memory.
According to another theory, the tradition of celebrating Valentine’s Day comes from an ancient Roman pagan fertility festival called Supercalia, which was celebrated on December 15. It is believed that the Catholic Church intended to replace this holiday with a church holiday, so it associated it with the name of St. Valentine.
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Traditions of celebrating Valentine’s Day
The main tradition of this holiday is the exchange of so-called “valentines”-cards made in the shape of a heart. In such valentines, people tell about their feelings for a loved one or confess their sympathy to a person with whom they want to enter into a relationship. On this day, it is also customary to exchange small, symbolic gifts with loved ones and close friends.
Many young men choose this holiday to propose to their beloved. Meanwhile, couples who are already in a relationship arrange romantic surprises for each other and often spend the evening having a romantic dinner or watching a movie about love.
Other countries also have their own unusual traditions of celebration. In Italy, for example, it is customary to give sweets and stage a Romeo and Juliet performance. In Canada and Denmark, lovers show their feelings by exchanging dried white flowers.
In Estonia, not only lovers, but also friends and relatives are congratulated on this day, as the holiday symbolizes all kinds of love – romantic, friendly, and family. In the Philippines, February 14 is a popular date for weddings, as the local authorities cover the costs of wedding ceremonies on this day for low-income couples.
In Japan, it is traditionally women who congratulate men on February 14, giving them sweets. Those with whom the relationship is purely formal – colleagues, friends, or classmates – are given purchased chocolate, called “courtesy chocolate.” For their family and loved ones, the girls make their own sweets. A month later, on March 14, comes the so-called White Day, when men return gifts to women.
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Author: Olya Yushko
