Editing Valentine's Day (section)

=== Possible ancient origins ===

The "Feast" ({{langx|la|in natali}}, {{lit|on the birthday}}) of Saint Valentine originated in Christendom and has been marked by the Western Church of Christendom in honour of one of the [[Christian martyr]]s named Valentine, as recorded in the 8th-century [[Gelasian Sacramentary]].<ref name="Chapman"/><ref name="Polcar1894"/> In [[Ancient Rome]], [[Lupercalia]] was observed February 13–15 on behalf of [[Pan (god)|Pan]] and [[Juno (mythology)|Juno]], pagan gods of love, marriage and fertility. It was a rite connected to purification and health, and had only slight connection to fertility (as a part of health) and none to love. The celebration of Saint Valentine is not known to have had any romantic connotations until [[Chaucer]]'s poetry about "Valentine's Day" in the 14th century, some seven hundred years after celebration of Lupercalia is believed to have ceased.<ref name="oruch"/>

Lupercalia was a festival local to the city of Rome. The more general Festival of [[Juno Februa]], meaning "Juno the purifier" or "the chaste Juno", was celebrated on February 13–14. Although the Pope [[Gelasius I]] (492–496) article in the Catholic Encyclopedia says that he abolished Lupercalia, theologian and Methodist minister [[Bruce Forbes]] wrote that "no evidence" has been demonstrated to link Saint Valentine's Day and the rites of the ancient Roman purification festival of [[Lupercalia]], despite claims by many authors to the contrary.<ref group="notes">For example, one source claims incorrectly that "Pope Gelasius I muddled things in the 5th century by combining St. Valentine's Day with Lupercalia to expel the pagan rituals." Seipel, Arnie, [https://www.npr.org/2011/02/14/133693152/the-dark-origins-of-valentines-day ''The Dark Origins Of Valentine's Day''] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160427232033/http://www.npr.org/2011/02/14/133693152/the-dark-origins-of-valentines-day |date=April 27, 2016 }}, National Public Radio, February 13, 2011</ref><ref name="ansgar"/><ref>{{Cite book |title= Secreted Desires: The Major Uranians: Hopkins, Pater and Wilde |author= Michael Matthew Kaylor |publisher= [[Masaryk University]] Press |year= 2006 |isbn= 80-210-4126-9 |edition= electronic |page= footnote 2 in page 235 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=-Wa7SIsAQgAC&q=saint+valentine%27s+day+lupercalia&pg=PA235 }}</ref><ref name="BDForbes2015"/>

Some researchers have theorized that Gelasius I replaced Lupercalia with the celebration of the [[Candlemas|Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary]] and claim a connection to the 14th century's connotations of romantic love, but there is no historical indication that he ever intended such a thing.<ref group="notes">Ansgar, 1976, pp. 60–61. The replacement of Lupercalia with Saint Valentine's celebration was suggested by researchers Kellog and Cox. Ansgar says "It is hardly credible, then, that Pope Gelasius could have introduced the feast of the Purification to counteract the Lupercalia, and in fact the historical records of his pontificate give no hint of such an action."</ref><ref name="BDForbes2015">{{cite book|last=Forbes|first=Bruce David|title=America's Favorite Holidays: Candid Histories|date=October 27, 2015|publisher=[[University of California Press]]|language=en|isbn=9780520284722|page=54|quote=There is no indication in suppressing the Lupercalia, Gelasius put anything else in its place. Much later, in the 1500s, a Cardinal Baronius speculated that Gelasius converted the Lupercalia into the Feast of the Purification of the Virgin (or Candlemas), changing one purification ceremony into another, and many noted authors have repeated this claim. Recent scholarship has refuted Baronius's assertion...there is no evidence that Gelasius advocated a celebration of Valentine's Day as a replacement for the Lupercalia. ... The letter by Gelasius to Andromachus criticizing the Lupercalia contains no reference to Valentine, or Valentine's Day, or any replacement observance.}}</ref><ref name="oruch lupercalia">Jack B. Oruch, "St. Valentine, Chaucer, and Spring in February" ''Speculum'' '''56'''.3 (July 1981:534–565)</ref> Also, the dates do not fit because at the time of Gelasius I, the feast was only celebrated in Jerusalem, and it was on February 14 only because Jerusalem placed the Nativity of Jesus (Christmas) on January 6.<ref group="notes">Ansgar, 1976, pp. 60–61. This feast is celebrated 40 days after the Nativity. In Jerusalem the Nativity was celebrated on January 6, and this feast in February 14. But, in the West and even in Eastern places such as Antioch and Alexandria, Nativity was celebrated on December 25, and this Purification was not celebrated. When this feast was introduced to Rome, it was directly placed in February 2. Around that time, Jerusalem adopted the Nativity date of December 25 and moved the Purification to February 2.</ref> Although it was called "Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary", it also dealt with the presentation of Jesus at the temple.<ref name="auto">Ansgar, 1976, pp. 60–61.</ref> Jerusalem's Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary on February 14 became the [[Presentation of Jesus at the Temple]] on February 2 as it was introduced to Rome and other places in the sixth century, after Gelasius I's time.<ref name="auto"/><!--Candlemas is treated elsewhere; here it is a confusing extraneity: Some historians argue that [[Candlemas]] (then held on February 14, later moved to February 2) was promoted as its replacement, but this feast was already being celebrated in [[Jerusalem]] by AD 381.--><!--the date was established in the martyrologies:"The pope also declared in 500 that the feast of [[St. Valentine]] would be on February 15."-->

While sometimes repeated uncritically by modern sources that men or boys drew names of women or girls from a jar to couple for the duration of Lupercalia, there is no ancient evidence for any kind of lottery or sortition scheme pairing couples for sex. The first descriptions of this fictitious lottery appeared in the 15th century in relation to Valentine's Day, with a connection to the Lupercalia first asserted in 18th century antiquarian works, such as those by [[Alban Butler]] (''[[The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints]]'', 1756–1759) and [[Francis Douce]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Oruch |first=Jack B. |date=1981 |title=St. Valentine, Chaucer, and Spring in February |jstor=2847741 |journal=Speculum |volume=56 |issue=3 |pages=534–565 |doi=10.2307/2847741 |issn=0038-7134 |quote=The idea that Valentine's Day customs perpetuated those of the Roman Lupercalia has been accepted uncritically and repeated, in various forms, up to the present. Most of those who offer this now traditional explanation cite no sources... Butler's ideas were prompted, in all probability, by a confused knowledge [or ...] wishful or pious fantasy. }}</ref> These modern sources claimed that the fictional Lupercalia was the source of the practice of sending valentines. 

The practice of sending valentines originated in the Middle Ages, with no link to Lupercalia, with boys drawing the names of girls at random. This custom was combated by priests, for example by [[Frances de Sales]] around 1600, apparently by replacing it with a religious custom of girls drawing the names of apostles from the [[altar]]. However, this religious custom is recorded as early as the 13th century in the life of Saint [[Elizabeth of Hungary]], so it could have a different origin.<ref name="ansgar">Ansgar, 1986, pp. [https://books.google.com/books?id=_bqdZbKPztMC&dq=saint+valentine%27s+lupercalia+year&pg=PA60 58–63]  {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161001215758/https://books.google.com/books?id=_bqdZbKPztMC&pg=PA60&dq=saint%20valentine%27s%20lupercalia%20year&hl=en&sa=X&ei=uXI4T8CgLITX0QWB4OiSAg&ved=0CDYQ6AEwATgK |date=October 1, 2016 }}</ref>

{{anchor|Chaucer's love}}