Legend One
The legend goes that a tyrant forced young men to enlist in the army, and in order to avoid military service, the men used marriage as an excuse. In a fit of rage, the tyrant ordered a ban on marriage and even on love affairs in order to force young men to join the army.
Walentine sympathized and risked his life to secretly marry his beloved couple. The story was leaked and Valentine was arrested and executed. To commemorate Valentine's bravery, the world worshiped him as the patron saint of lovers and designated February 14, the day of his martyrdom, as "Saint Valentine's Day" (Saint Valentien), which has been passed down over the years and become Valentine's Day today.
Legend 2
There is also a legend that Valentine's Day evolved from the ancient Roman festival of Lupercalia.
This festival was dedicated to Juno, the protector of shepherds and village people.
In the celebration of this festival, there is a ritual to find a partner, that is, the man in a box to draw a note with a woman's name, as a lover, and the woman, known as Valentine. This custom has also been passed down in Europe until the twentieth century, when the rituals of this holiday were still in place.
Legend Three
Another theory of the origin of Valentine's Day has to do with nature.
Legend has it that in England, all birds used to mate on February 14th, such as blackbirds and partridges. Therefore, human beings also believe that February 14th is a good day for everything to be born in spring, which represents the beginning of youthful life, and they also follow the example of the birds to choose their partners on February 14th.
Legend IV
Some say it originated in the 3rd century AD. At that time, because Christianity held a negative attitude towards the rule of the Roman Empire and did not recognize the worship of the Roman Emperor, it was brutally suppressed and persecuted by the imperial government. A Christian named Valentine was arrested for publicly denouncing Rome's suppression of Christianity and calling on believers to rise up against it. In prison, he suffered inhuman torture, but still insisted on his faith. The warden's daughter, a beautiful, gentle girl, was overwhelmed by his austerity and fell in love with him. From then on, the two often in the gloom. Damp black prison, tell each other their hearts, the sea oath, so that Valentine spent a period of other flavors of love days.
But, in that dark era, it is difficult for lovers to get married. Because Valentine preferred to die, the Roman government sentenced him to death. Before his execution, he wrote a long letter to his lover, expressing his undying love for her, and his bitterness at not being able to give up his faith for the sake of his love, and then he went to the execution ground with great emotion, and was killed with honor. This day happened to be February 14, 270 AD.
After Valentine's death, the girl was overwhelmed with grief and wept over her lover's body, and everyone who watched was saddened and in tears. The majority of Christians and young men and women in order to commemorate this unforgettable day, but also in order to express the wish that all lovers will be married, the February 14th as Valentine's Day, also known as "Love Election Day". Valentine's Day is also known as St. Valentine's Day because Valentine is considered a "saint" by Christianity.
Some people say that there was another Christian saint named Valentine. During the Roman Empire, Christianity was considered illegal and could not be practiced in public. This Valentine defied the ban by secretly performing wedding ceremonies in churches for loving couples who believed in Jesus Christ, was arrested after the incident, and died in custody. Believers say he became the "patron saint" of love after his death, and Valentine's Day was established in his honor.
(Addition to Legend 2)
But more people believe that Valentine's Day has nothing to do with the two Christian saints named Valentine, but comes directly from the ancient Roman festival of the Patriarchs.
In Roman mythology, the pastoral god Faunus was also the god of the forests and wilderness, the protector of herds and shepherds. He helped to wash away the sins of the shepherds, blessed them with good harvests, and protected the herds from wolves. But he was also a god of debauchery. Normally, he lives freely in the forests and wilderness, using his magical powers to lure every woman he encounters into having sex with him, and even having intercourse with all the animals he encounters. It is comical to say that Valentine's Day, which is full of warmth and affection, is associated with such primitive and vulgar sex worship.
Rumor has it that the pastoral festival honoring Faunus was started by Rome's famous ancestor, Romulus, who founded the city. On February 14th of one of the years of his rule, he held the first ceremony to honor Faunus in a cave on the Palatine Gorge, the sacred place of the Roman gods (later known as the "Cave of the Shepherd God"), and prayed for his blessings on the Roman people, which was the first Shepherd God's Day.
The rituals of the Shepherd's Day have ancient religious and mythological overtones. On this day, people offered dogs and goats to Faunus, because the legendary god of the pastoral was born with goat's feet, and the dogs were meant to watch over the sheep. After the sacrifice, the participants in the ritual, naked and holding whips made from the skins of the sacrificed goats, run around the palatineoka, whipping every woman they encounter. The women were not only willing to be whipped, but also scrambled to get under the whip. They believed that this was communication with the shepherd god and that being beaten would help them have more children. At the beginning of the founding of ancient Rome, people were scarce and encouraging population growth was an important policy. This kind of whipping was a unique religious ritual combining the magic of multiplication and invocation that was popular at the time. This, in turn, was combined with the ancient belief that the ultimate goal of a love marriage was to be fertile and multiply, thus hanging on a bit to love. In fact, no matter how incomprehensible the rituals and concepts of the Shepherd's Day may seem to present-day people, they all denote a connection with love and marriage. Prayers for a better life have thus been passed down from generation to generation. Later, in the continuous innovation of the rituals of the Makigami Festival, a new game was added, namely: setting up a sign box filled with pieces of sign paper with the names of the girls written on them. Young men can choose any one of them, and whoever he draws is his lover. Shepherd's Day has gradually evolved into Valentine's Day, until the 16th century, Valentine's Day still retains the remnants of the lottery "hit the sky marriage", but no longer with a sign box, but on February 14th, the day, the young man will be the first he saw with their own age of the opposite sex, as their own lover. In Shakespeare's immortal play Hamlet, the heroine Ophelia falls in love with the handsome young Hamlet and wants to be the first to appear at her beloved's window. She expresses her feelings by saying, "Tomorrow is Valentine's Day, so get up early, and see me ah to your window, and be the love of your life." )