what is the story behind valentines day?
82780
There was a priest (maybe a bishop) in ancient Rome named St. Valentine, who, while in jail sent a love letter to his lover.  The next day he was beheaded.
121571
This is the time for people to show their apperication to one enother and show how much they care. Most guys dont show how much they care about their girl so thats a good reason for V day. So people with gf, bf, husband and wives know that they love each.
165282
I believe that Valentines Day is, and should remain, for both sexes. It is a day that represents your love for eachother, one special day that was meant in celebration of ONLY eachother. Not just female, or just male.  I think that the day has become more of a female obsession because it is the one day that represents what they wish EVERYDAY could be like.  Its a day about what generally is most important to them, and that would be their man. We can only hope that our men will parallel our feelings everyday about how much they love us, but our day does come once a year. We will always love our men everyday, but sometimes we are, and you are so busy that its hard to devote every minute to telling eachother how we feel, or showing them.  I believe that Valentines day is the one exception, it is a day reserved for both of us to SHARE our love.\n\nAnd no offense to you, but males need more help buying gifts than women do.  Those advertisements were made BY women FOR men.  We're only reminding you to not forget. Plus women will remember to think ahead and get gifts maybe even a month before the big day.  We know you men wait until the last minute. Plus, if its not presents, theres always one sure way to please a man.  Women, unfortunately need more reassurance of your love, and most women are extremely materialistic.   \nIf your woman is not, get out your paper and glue stick, a paper card drwawn and written by you will mean 100 times more, and itll save you money.  But make sure it doesnt look like you forgot and had to throw something together last minute, spend at least a good half hour on it.
97052
"SHERI":\n         No problem with this one.....!\n         Valentine's Day contains all of the hooks,snares,bells and whistles that men feel confident with as a means of "getting a foot in the door".Also,it gives them one day out of the year in which material extortion (candy,flowers,etc.)are perfectly alright are needn"t be thought of as gratuitous......I"m a man, I ought to know!......
138296
It has something to do with a priest named Valentine who continued doing marriages even though it was forbidden in his part of the world.  Eventually, the church executed him.  On his last day, he sent someone a note and signed it, "Love, your Valentine."  For this, Hallmark makes millions every year.
52529
I am my own Valentine. The reason why is simple: the most exciting, challenging and significant realtionship is the one you have with yourself. And if you find someone to love the you you love well thats just fabulous.\n\nI have not found anyone to love the me I love.
117123
Valentine's Day occurs annually on Februay 14. Modern day customs include sending greeting cards known as valentines to loved ones. School rooms are often decorated with lace and paper hearts. Gifts of candy and flowers are also common at this time.\n\nThe origins of Valentine's Day are uncertain. Many experts believe that it originated with Lupercalia, a Roman celebration honoring the wolves Romulus and Remus. During this festival, young men struck women with a goatskin hide called a februa. Receiving the blows was thought to make women more fertile and to ease childbirth. At Lupercalia, the names of all the young women in the city were placed in a box. Young men drew a name from the box and the couple would be paired until the next Lupercalia. Lupercalia was replaced with Valentine's Day by Christians.\n\nOthers trace Valentine's Day back to the rule of the Roman emperor Claudius II. In the 200's C. E., Claudius become frustrated when he had trouble recruiting soldiers into his army. Believing that the young men did not want to leave their wives and children, Claudius banned all marriages of single young men. However, a priest named Valentine disobeyed Claudius and performed secret marriages. Claudius found out about the marriages and sentenced Valentine to prison until his death on February 14, 270 C. E.\n\nMany historians believe the custom of sending poetic verse on this day originated with the capture of Charles, Duke of Orleans, during the Battle of Agincourt. From his prison cell in the Tower of London, Charles sent his wife a rhyming love letter.\n\nValentine cards became popular in Great Britain in the nineteenth century. Noted artist Kate Greenaway created cards which featured joyful children and beautiful gardens. Esther Howland was one of the first Valentine card manufacturers in the United States. Inspired by a British card, she began production in 1847. Her cards featured lace and paper flowers and leaves. Other card manufacturers emphasized Cupid, the pudgy, winged son of Venus, the goddess of love. In Roman lore, Cupid is known as Eros, the son of Aphrodite.
150255
valentine's day came from St. Valentine. He is a roman priest in nearly 600-700 a.d. In his time, roman should praise their roman god and godess, but valentine worship Chrsit, our God. That's why the emperor of that time decided to persecute Valentine. While he was in the jail, waiting for his persecution, Valentine wrote a letter for his love ones. He was persecuted and died february 14. \n\nEvery year, his family and friends celebrate his death by sharing their love to each other. When valentine became a saint. The tradition of his family spread all over the world. Thats how valentine's day originatred.
93244
Cause it had became a marketing tool of the retail business.  Valentines day won't suck if you could express your love to those you should love.  Not limited to lovers!  Could be your parents, friends, and the poor.  Expensive presents is just a show off of wealth rather than show off of love :)
343115
During the Roman Empire, St. Valentine (one of the first Catholic saints) would marry couples under the Christian rites (forbidden at that time, reason for which he was martirized). That's why he's considered the saint associated with love. Feb. 14 is the date associated to him by the R.C.C.
150614
Named after the religious figure Saint Valentine.
167447
:}\nSt. Valentine was a priest near Rome. At that time the Roman Emperor, Claudius II, had issued an edict forbidding marriage. Claudius had determined that married men made poor soldiers because they were emotionally attached to their families. So he banned marriage from his empire.\n\nValentine, a bishop , seeing the trauma of young lovers, met with them in a secret place, and joined them in the sacrament of matrimony. When Claudius found out about this "friend of lovers," Valentine was thrown in jail and condemned to death.
35658
Roman Roots\nThe history of Valentine's Day is obscure, and further clouded by various fanciful legends. The holiday's roots are in the ancient Roman festival of Lupercalia, a fertility celebration commemorated annually on February 15. Pope Gelasius I recast this pagan festival as a Christian feast day circa 496, declaring February 14 to be St. Valentine's Day.\n\nValentines Galore\nWhich St. Valentine this early pope intended to honor remains a mystery: according to the Catholic Encyclopedia, there were at least three early Christian saints by that name. One was a priest in Rome, another a bishop in Terni, and of a third St. Valentine almost nothing is known except that he met his end in Africa. Rather astonishingly, all three Valentines were said to have been martyred on Feb. 14.\n\nMost scholars believe that the St. Valentine of the holiday was a priest who attracted the disfavor of Roman emperor Claudius II around 270. At this stage, the factual ends and the mythic begins. According to one legend, Claudius II had prohibited marriage for young men, claiming that bachelors made better soldiers. Valentine continued to secretly perform marriage ceremonies but was eventually apprehended by the Romans and put to death. Another legend has it that Valentine, imprisoned by Claudius, fell in love with the daughter of his jailer. Before he was executed, he allegedly sent her a letter signed "from your Valentine." Probably the most plausible story surrounding St. Valentine is one not focused on Eros (passionate love) but on agape (Christian love): he was martyred for refusing to renounce his religion.\n\nIn 1969, the Catholic Church revised its liturgical calendar, removing the feast days of saints whose historical origins were questionable. St. Valentine was one of the casualties.\n\nChaucer's Love Birds\nIt was not until the 14th century that this Christian feast day became definitively associated with love. According to UCLA medieval scholar Henry Ansgar Kelly, author of Chaucer and the Cult of Saint Valentine, it was Chaucer who first linked St. Valentine's Day with romance.\n\nIn 1381, Chaucer composed a poem in honor of the engagement between England's Richard II and Anne of Bohemia. As was the poetic tradition, Chaucer associated the occasion with a feast day. In "The Parliament of Fowls," the royal engagement, the mating season of birds, and St. Valentine's Day are linked:\n\nFor this was on St. Valentine's Day, \nWhen every fowl cometh there to choose his mate.\n\nTradition of Valentine's Cards\n Over the centuries, the holiday evolved, and by the 18th century, gift-giving and exchanging hand-made cards on Valentine's Day had become common in England. Hand-made valentine cards made of lace, ribbons, and featuring cupids and hearts eventually spread to the American colonies. The tradition of Valentine's cards did not become widespread in the United States, however, until the 1850s, when Esther A. Howland, a Mount Holyoke graduate and native of Worcester, Mass., began mass-producing them. Today, of course, the holiday has become a booming commercial success. According to the Greeting Card Association, 25% of all cards sent each year are valentines.
149126
Hi.\n\nThere's plenty of information over this topic in various search engines.\nhttp://www.google.com/search?q=History+valentines+wikipedia&btnI=I%27m+Feeling+Lucky\nhttp://www.google.com/search?num=100&q=%2BHistory+valentines\nhttp://www.google.com/search?num=100&q=%2BHistory+valentines+wiki\nhttp://www.google.com/search?num=100&q=+site:dmoz.org+History+valentines\nhttp://answers.yahoo.com/search/search_result?p=History+valentines\nhttp://www.google.com/search?num=100&q=+site:answers.com+%2BHistory+valentines\nhttp://www.google.com/search?num=100&q=History+valentines+forum\nhttp://answers.google.com/answers/search?q=History+valentines&qtype=all&num=100&sort=qeprice%3AA%3AR%3Ad1\nhttp://search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=History+valentines
172759
Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he outlawed marriage for young men -- his crop of potential soldiers. Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When Valentine's actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death. \nAccording to legend,Valentine actually sent the first 'valentine' greeting himself. While in prison, it is believed that Valentine fell in love with a young girl -- who may have been his jailor's daughter -- who visited him during his confinement. Before his death, it is alleged that he wrote her a letter, which he signed 'From your Valentine,'. The Carmelite Church in Dublin, Ireland claims to hold the remains of St.Valentine
68583
If it were sexist it would be favoring one sex or another wouldn't it? I think when it comes to showing love, Valentine's Day was created for everyone to show love. It is not anymore geared to one sex than another. Now if you asked if the focus of the marketing of Valentine's Day sexist.......perhaps. Have you noticed the increase in jewelry commercials......flowers......intimate delicates?   Shouldn't we also buy tools, new tires, fishing tackle and cigars?   From what I understand V-day was created by the card companies using St. Valentine as the patron saint of the day. *shrugs*   My kids love it........as for me? I just like the little candy hearts that say "Be mine" on them.
172136
http://answers.yahoo.com/search/search_result?p=need+valentine