Where did Valentine's Day come from?

I thought I should talk about it for all you single people out there (like me).

This is something I wrote for a creative non-fiction class when I went abroad two years ago to Oregon, USA.

"So the original Valentine’s, that, came from Christianity.  Turns out there were two saints, Valentine of Rome and Terni who were both honored on what is now Valentine’s
Day.  The former was a priest and the latter was a bishop, both martyred between AD 270 and 190.

Some people claim there was a third Valentine who was martyred in Africa.  However, it was Valentine of Rome’s head that was preserved in Winchester though nothing is said if he was an important figure or not.

Then, where did all the Valentine’s Day stuff come from?  In Geoffrey Chaucer’s poetry, the depiction of courtly love was seen.  From this poem, people said Valentine’s Day lied on February 14^th and men began to give flowers or greeting cards known as “valentines”.

An excerpt from the “Parlement of Foules” by Chaucer from Wikipedia:

“For this was on seynt Volantynys day
Whan euery bryd comyth there to chese his make.”

(Wikipedia: William S. Clark)

People interpreted “Volantynys day” to be the day Saint Valentine was honored; February 14^th.  However, skeptic people pointed out that the second line, “euery bryd comyth there to chese his make” sounded more like spring time when birds mated rather than in the middle of still cold freezing weather when the bird would likely be fluffing up their feathers instead.  Nonetheless, Valentine’s Day became February 14^th."


Ah, thank you young me for being so formal in a non-fictional piece or writing. But apparently, if we ARE celebrating old Saint Valentine, we are celebrating his DEATH????

What the heck???

Also, people feel lonely on Valentine's Day because of some people way back when misinterpreted Chaucer. Maybe they did. I don't know. But who knew "Volantynys" would be "Valetine's" where they heck did the "a" after the "V" come from. At least "euery" was "every" no doubt. And "make" is supposed to be "mate" I guess so that means that Chaucer and present English had the vowels in common.

Volantynys... maybe Volantines? Or it could be volcanoes for all we know :/

I need some language experts on this case.

Any takers?

So, the point of this post was to say that if you are single, you should be proud of it because that means you aren't being happy on a day when probably someone got their head chopped off.

Say it, I AM PROUD TO BE SINGLE!!! Say it! You, I didn't hear you! Say it louder! Feel good about being independent.

And, always remember to stay awesome :)

See ya later alligators!