When and where was Valentine's Day first celebrated?

Answer 1

Saint Valentine himself is believed to have been Valentinius, a candidate for Bishop of Rome in 143.

Saint Valentine's Day was originally the Roman feast of Lupercalia, and was celebrated on February 15th. It started in the time of the Roman Empire. In ancient Rome, February 14th was a holiday to honor Juno, the Queen of the Roman Gods and Goddesses. The Romans also knew her as the Goddess of women and marriage. February 15th, began the Feast of Lupercalia. Although Valentine's Day itself was not originally associated with romantic love, there was some association with love within the ancient Roman feast from which it derived. One of the customs involved name drawing. On February 14th, the eve of the festival of Lupercalia, Roman girls had their names written on slips of paper and placed into jars. The young men would each draw out a girl's name from the jar, and the couple would be partners during the festival. Sometimes, the pairing of the children lasted a full year, and they would sometimes fall in love and later marry.

The feast of Saint Valentine was first declared by Pope Gelasius I to be held on February 14th, 496. It was declared in memory of the martyrdom of Saint Valentine, a priest at Rome in the days of Claudius II. Saint Valentine and Saint Marius helped Christian martyrs and secretly married couples. For this act, Valentine was apprehended, condemned and executed in 270 A.D.

Originally, Valentine's Day had nothing to do with celebrating romantic love. The first known recorded association of Saint Valentine's Day with romantic love was in the 14th century in England and France. February 14th came to be recognized traditionally as the day on which birds paired off to mate. This is probably due to the poem Parlement of Foules (1382) by Geoffrey Chaucer.

By the 17th century, it had become common for lovers to exchange notes on this day and to call each other "Valentines," and from there it gradually grew into the extended celebration it has become today.

Answer 2

Feb 14