Valentines Day is Feb. 14

No one knows the exact origin of Valentine’s Day. It could have started as the Roman festival of Lupercalia which was celebrated in mid-February and heralded the coming of spring.

During the Roman holiday, which included fertility rites, men and women were paired off by lottery, but in the fifth century, Pope Gelasius forbade the custom and some say he replaced Lupercalia with St. Valentine’s Day, according to britannica.com. 

Valentine’s Day, celebrated on Feb. 14, could have gotten its name from any number of Christian martyrs named Valentine, but, again, the origins are unclear. Legend has it that a priest signed a letter “from your Valentine” to his jailer’s daughter who he befriended and healed of her blindness. The most plausible answer is that St. Valentine of Terni, a Catholic bishop who, according to legend, secretly married couples to spare the men from going to war, cementing Valentine’s Day as a lover’s holiday.

People started using Valentines, or formal messages in the 1500s, and by the1700s, people used printed cards.

Today, Valentine’s Day is celebrated in Argentina, Australia, Canada, France, Mexico, the Philippines, and South Korea along with the United States.

School children across the country celebrate the holiday by exchanging Valentines' cards and candy with their friends.