Love Sells

Valentine’s Day has been around for many centuries. It is believed to have originated as a Christian holiday honouring St. Valentine, a third-century priest who secretly married couples when Roman emperor Claudius II banned love affairs and marriages. When St. Valentine was caught, he was imprisoned and sentenced to death for performing the forbidden marriages. 

While imprisoned, St. Valentine wrote a letter to the jailer’s daughter, who he had come to love a day before he was to be executed on February 14, around 270 A.D., and signed it ‘From your Valentine’ which started the tradition of sending letters to loved ones on this date. 

These stories are majorly associated with the season because they sell the idea of love, romantic devotion, and exchanging love letters or cards, even in the face of danger. However, no person can genuinely tell the origin of Valentine’s Day because it has a long and somewhat murky history.  

February 14th—Valentine’s Day—is arguably one of the prominent features of Western consumerism culture that has seeped into the hearts and traditions of various people worldwide. Despite its unclear and, in some narratives, gloomy origins, rebranding Valentine’s Day as the day to celebrate and freely express love is, without a doubt, a beautiful thing that touches on the very essence of what it means to be human.