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By JANE BANGLEY
Rappahannock New* Staff Writer
Valentine’s Day, the day for love and romance, began in a distinctly unromantic way according to most sources. Jane M. Hatch wrote in The American Book of Days that there were at least two early Christian martyrs named Valentine associated with February 14, and that ceremonies done in remembrance of the martyrs slowly evolved until St. Valentine’s Day became a day for the celebration of love.
The theories of how this evolution took place are varied. One is that there was a popular belief in the Middle Ages that the first day of mating for birds was February 14, which led to the day’s connection with love. Other theories are that the similarity between the Norman word galantin that means lover of women and Valentine led to confusion between the two, and that the modem observance of Valentine’s Day grew out of an ancient Roman custom.
On the day before the Roman feast of the Lupercalia, the names of young women would be drawn from a box, and each young man would act for a year as the gallant for the young woman whose name he drew. At first, the couples would give gifts to each other, but later only the man would give a gift.
St. Valentine’s Day customs in England date back to the 1400’s, and include beliefs such as that the first person met of the opposite sex on Valentine’s Day would be a person’s true
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