Do you know the origins of Valentine's Day? 
Today we think of Valentine's Day as being a celebration of romantic love--but where did that idea come from? Valentine's Day, named for St. Valentine--who was executed by the Romans--is widely accepted to have its romantic origins in Geoffrey Chaucer's poem, Parliament of Fowls. This poem is the first to mention birds coming together on St. Valentine's Day to choose their mates for the year. And, when birds are choosing their romantic partners, humans were expected to follow suit, because in medieval literature, birds were often representative of human affairs. This was an early measure in making what was once a Christian observance into a secular holiday, as the focus in Chaucer's poem was not on St. Valentine, the martyr, but on romantic love and match-making.
So how did Valentine's Day become a national celebration in the United States? It was not until the mid-nineteenth century that Valentine's Day began to resemble the event that we know today. Because of the holiday's Chaucerian roots, Valentine's Day quickly became a courtly celebration in England, in which aristocrats exchanged gifts and recited poems. Up until the 1840's in the United States, American almanacs generally had entries on February 14th--portrayed with birds and other springtime images--but these images were usually followed by an entry claiming that this celebration was distinctly English, not American. Between the 1840's and 1860's in major American cities like Philadelphia and New York, Americans began exchanging both hand-made and commercially-produced "valentines," or fancy love notes. And, by the 1860's, the exchange of valentines in the United States on February 14th had become a highly commercial enterprise due to the rapid increase in demand over a 20-year span, and the exchange of hand-made valentines fell out of practice. In the early 20th century, Hallmark Cards began producing massive volumes of valentines--and they're still in business today.
Today, Valentine's Day is a multi-billion dollar enterprise, but if you want to more about its history, check out some of our resources below!
Explore Our Resources:
Further Reading From Your Library:
The Complete Poetry and Prose of Geoffrey Chaucer by
America's Favorite Holidays by
Braddy, Haldeen. “Chaucer and Graunson: The Valentine Tradition.” PMLA, vol. 54, no. 2, Modern Language Association, 1939, pp. 359–68, https://doi.org/10.2307/458560.
Oruch, Jack B. “St. Valentine, Chaucer, and Spring in February.” Speculum, vol. 56, no. 3, [Medieval Academy of America, Cambridge University Press, University of Chicago Press], 1981, pp. 534–65, https://doi.org/10.2307/2847741.
Schmidt, Leigh Eric. “The Fashioning of a Modern Holiday: St. Valentine’s Day, 1840-1870.” Winterthur Portfolio, vol. 28, no. 4, [University of Chicago Press, Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, Inc.], 1993, pp. 209–45, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1181508.
Stack, Liam. "Valentine’s Day: Did It Start as a Roman Party or to Celebrate an Execution?" Feb 14 2017. Web. ProQuest. 8 Feb. 2022.
Von Kreisler, Nicolai. “Bird Lore and the Valentine’s Day Tradition in Chaucer’s ‘Parlement of Foules.’” The Chaucer Review, vol. 3, no. 1, Penn State University Press, 1968, pp. 60–64, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25093071.
Outside Resources:
The British Library: The Parliament of Fowls
The History Channel: History of Valentine's Day
NPR: The Dark Origins of Valentine's Day
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