The Valentine’s Day or Day of lovers is celebrated on the 14th February. Saint Valentine was a Roman priest, distinguished by wisdom and virtuous life. He used to live during the reign of the Emperor Claudius II Gothicus who forbade the marriage and establishment of a family to his soldiers since he was of the opinion that unmarried men were much better soldiers than those having spouses and children.
Saint Valentine disagreed with this and did not respect the emperor’s ban and he performed secretly marriage of young people believing in love and all its amenities. Having had learned about it Claudius took him into custody, threw into prison and on the 14th of February 296 Valentine was executed by cutting off his head.
The emperor Julius I built a basilica above his tomb in the 4th century and the Pope Gelasius devoted the 14th February 489 to Saint Valentine and that day is celebrated as the Day of lovers, and Saint Valentine became the patron saint of lovers.
According to a legend, Valentine was the one who sent the first “Valentine’s message”. Namely, legend says that Valentine was fallen in love with a young girl during his imprisonment, a daughter of a prison guard. Before his death, he wrote a letter to her by putting his signature “from your Valentine”, an expression being often written in today’s Valentine’s cards. It is usual to send love letters on the Saint Valentine’s Day, but by tradition, they should not be signed!
Besides red roses and heart, a common symbol of being in love is Cupid, Roman god of love shown as winged boy armed by bow and arrow. Legend says that the one hit by Cupid’s gold arrow shall “lose” heart over catching sight of the first person.
