The holiday’s roots are in the ancient roman festival of Lupercalia, a fertility celebration commemorated annually on February 15. Pope Gelasius recast this pagan festival as a Christian feast day circa 496, declaring February 14 to be St. Valentine’s Day. Nearly 62 percent American’s celebrate this holiday. Besides Christmas, people also spend a lot of money on this holiday as well. In total we spend almost 20 Billion dollars on Valentine’s Day. The United States began to celebrate this holiday around the 1840’s

Origins

 The romantic holiday first started out as a festival members of the Luperci, an order of Roman priests, would gather at a sacred cave where the infants Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, were believed to have been cared for by a she-wolf or lupa. The priests would sacrifice a goat, for fertility, and a dog, for purification. They would then strip the goat’s hide into strips, dip them into the sacrificial blood and take to the streets, gently slapping both women and crop fields with the goat hide. Lupercalia survived the initial rise of Christianity and but was outlawed as it was deemed “un Christian” at the end of the 5th century, when Pope Gelasius declared February 14 St. Valentine’s Day. It was not until much later, however, that the day became definitively associated with love. During the Middle Ages, it was commonly believed in France and England that February 14 was the beginning of birds’ mating season, which added to the idea that the middle of Valentine’s Day should be a day for romance.

Now

In addition to the United States, Valentine’s Day is also celebrated in Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, France and Australia. Today an estimated 1 billion Valentine’s Day cards are sent each year, making Valentine’s Day the second largest card sending holiday of the year.