The Origins of Valentine's Day

What Is Valentine’ Day?
It’s a big day for chocolates, flowers and very high expectations. 53% of women say they will end a relationship if they don't get a Valentine card, yet 85% of cards are bought by women. Men will spend twice as much as women. Americans will spend a collective $18.9 billion on candy, flowers and more gifts for the holiday.  The average American will spend 116 dollars. Perhaps you're feeling left out?

Millions wonder, Am I really special to someone else?
Millions are feeling kind of 'out of it' or disappointed. It's not just young school kids who wish they could get a Valentine card or even a note of affection. There are more tales of the "origins" of Valentine's Day than arrows in Cupid's quiver. 

Modern glorification of sentimental love is reflected in a flurry of cards (2^nd only to Xmas), millions in roses and heart shaped chocolates has little to do with Saint Valentine. 

One of the most common legends is that of the 3rd-century priest named Valentine who secretly performed marriages when Emperor Claudius II reportedly forbade marriage believing the soldiers were halfhearted and homesick. He was imprisoned for his act of defiance and while in prison cured his jailer's daughter of blindness. The day before his execution (supposedly Feb. 14, 269), he sent a farewell message to the daughter signed "From your Valentine."

The first Valentine card was sent by Charles, Duke of Orleans, to his wife in 1415 when he was a prisoner in the Tower of London and is still on display at the British Museum. Even by the middle ages the church's hope for a more spiritual, saint-centered Valentine's Day was lost.

Eventually, the idea that Valentine was actually the name of a person disappeared. By 1450, a valentine was the name of one's sweetheart. In 1533, it was a folded piece of paper. In Great Britain, Valentine's Day began to be popularly celebrated around the seventeenth century.

By the middle of the eighteenth century, it was common for friends and lovers in all social classes to exchange small tokens of affection or handwritten notes. By the end of the century, printed cards began to replace written letters due to improvements in printing technology. Ready-made cards were an easy way for people to express their emotions in a time when direct expression of one's feelings was discouraged.

Cheaper postage rates also contributed to an increase in the popularity of sending Valentine's Day greetings. Americans probably began exchanging hand-made valentines in the early 1700s. In the 1840s the first mass-produced valentine cards in America. Valentine's Day has been a big deal at least since the middle ages.

While Valentine's story may not have much to do with roses, chocolates, and heart-shaped chocolates Christians have long understood that love is much costlier, stronger, and lasting and more difficult than the cheap romanticism of our age.

If you feel left out on Valentine’s Day God reminds you what true love is 

I have loved you with a an everlasting love. Jeremiah 31:3

You are precious to me and honored and I love you. Isaiah 43:4

This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 1 John 4:10

Grasp how wide and how long and how deep is the love of Christ. Ephesians 3:18

Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Ephesians 5:1-2

God is in a relentless passionate pursuit of YOU!  No matter who you are or where you are, no matter how far it takes He will find you! His Love will never be exhausted in His pursuit of you!