A day consisting of candy and flowers, hugs and kisses, cards and jewelry and love and death.
Love and death?

Valentine’s Day is far more than a Hallmark holiday; legends from this romantic day trace back to ancient Rome and the death of Saint Valentine.

History:
According to history.com, one legend takes place in third century Rome with a priest named Valentine who decided that he would perform weddings for young couples in secret. The emperor had banned marriages because he believed that single men made better soldiers than men with families back home. For doing this, Valentine was sentenced to death.

A second legend suggests that Valentine was killed for trying to help Christians escape from Roman prisons.

But the most familiar legend for Valentine’s Day is the Valentine. Valentine was believed to have actually sent the first ‘Valentine’ to a young girl he fell in love with while in prison. The girl, who may have been the jailor’s daughter, visited him consistently while he was in jail. Just before he was put to death, he wrote a letter and at the bottom signed it, “From your Valentine.”

Why February 14?
Pope Gelasius officially declared Feb. 14 Valentine’s Day in 498 A.D., according to history.com.

It’s possible the reason Valentine’s Day falls on Feb. 14 is to remember the day that Valentine was killed. Another reason could be that the Christian church decided they wanted to celebrate Valentine’s Day on this date to try to ‘christianize’ the pagan festival, Lupercalia.

Lupercalia, a fertility festival, began on Feb. 15 and was dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture. February was the beginning of spring, which meant it was time to start cleaning. During this period, houses were “ritually cleansed” by sweeping and sprinkling salt and a special kind of wheat called spelt all over one’s home.

During the festival, a priest would sacrifice a goat for fertility and a dog for purification.

After that, boys would slice goat’s hides into strips then dip them in sacrificial blood. They would then take the strips and softly slap women and crops with them because it was said that it would make them more fertile. Women did not discourage this, according to history.com.

The myth also said all single young women would put their names in a large urn where unmarried men would choose from and that was the women they would be with for the rest of the year. These couples were more than likely to be married.

Europe believed that Feb. 14 was the beginning of birds’ mating season making it another reason for this day to be a day for lovers.

Just the facts:
The oldest known Valentine, written in 1415, currently resides in the British Library in London. The poem was written by Duke of Orleans Charles to his wife while he was in prison in the Tower of London.

Approximately 85 percent of valentines are bought by women.

Valentine’s Day is celebrated in the United States, Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, France and Australia.

Esther A. Howland, also known as the Mother of the Valentine, created the first commercial Valentine’s Day greeting cards in the U.S. in the 1840s.

Handwritten Valentine’s Day cards became more popular during the Revolutionary War, and skyrocketed in the 1900s.

Valentine’s Day cards were first offered in 1916 but didn’t start production until 1916.

Hallmark makes more than 2,000 different card designs for Valentine’s Day.

Valentine’s Day 2010:
A whopping $14.1 billion is anticipated in retail sales, reported by nationalgeographic.com.

The average person is likely to spend $103 on various Valentine’s Day gifts, according to an annual National Retail Federation survey.

The most common purchase will be greeting cards. According to the survey, each person plans to buy at least one card.

The Greeting Card Association said 190 million cards will be sent, not including the millions of cards kids will exchange with their friends.

Valentine’s Day is also known as Singles Awareness Day (SAD) for those who choose to celebrate the day with their single friends, or for those who just would rather talk about how much they hate the holiday.