The History of Valentine’s Day
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Valentine’s Day is an extraordinary day for lovebirds and friends. Friendship and love are usually celebrated on this day with flowers, chocolates, a romantic and fancy dinner or a party that includes music, alcohol and colorful décor. Most people who want a dashing party decide to hire a party rental company to supply all their event needs.
Sadly, the origin of this holiday isn’t as romantic as we think it is, and today Party rental Miami brings you the real story behind this popular celebration. Saint Valentine’s was a Roman festivity that began being celebrated on the 14th of February in the middle ages in commemoration of the Roman Saint Valentine, who was buried on that day.
Valentine was a Roman priest when the Roman emperor Claudius was in charge. The emperor ruled out the marriages of young people, under the belief that unmarried soldiers performed better than married ones.
On the other hand, Valentine who was disapproved polygamy, a prevalent practice during that time, Valentine stood by the idea of marrying couples within the Christian Church, as the latter had a strong belief that marriage was very sacred,
During this time, Valentine would perform marriages in secret as this was against the emperor’s edict. Valentine was persecuted and finally caught, imprisoned and tortured for performing marriages against the Emperor’s consent.
Due to his stand for Christian Marriage, in the year 269 AD, Valentine was sentenced to an execution that consisted of beating, stoning, and decapitation.
Valentine’s martyrdom became popular world while but there was little reliably known about him, the Catholic Church removed his name from the from the General Roman Calendar, and the celebration has left only to local calendars, although the Catholic Church stills recognize him as a saint and continues the adoration of him on February 14th.
In modern day, Valentine has become famous as the patron saint of lovers. It is believed that the recent celebration of Valentine’s day its traced back to England, in 1797, when a British publisher posted The Young Man’s Valentine Writer which contained romantic poetry.
These pieces of writing became very popular, and most printing companies began producing cards with these verses, which became so popular in England in the early 19th century that factories were created for this new industry.
When the postal rates were reduced with the invention of postage stamps, the number of valentines’ cards increased and these began being sent to mail, making the exchange of cards anonymously. As demand grew, this benefited many people with jobs.
This tradition later spread out to America, and different entrepreneurs began a similar business to the one in England, but they also expanded to floral decorations. In 1868 a famous British chocolate company designed a heart-shaped candy box which was early associated to this holiday and by the mid 20th century, the practice extended to sharing all types of gifts from balloons to jewelry and later on to fancy dinners and friendship parties.