Surprising Facts about Valentine’s Day

No matter how you spent the fourteenth of February, Valentine’s Day is typically associated with love, roses and heart shaped chocolate boxes. What few people know is the dark history of the “sweet” holiday.

Dating as far back as the fifteenth century, Roman men would celebrate the original holiday, Lupercalia by literally hitting their crushes rather than flirting. These men would sacrifice animals and proceed by whipping their spouses with the hides of the animal. For those without a partner, it was a matchmaking game in which names were put into a bucket and drawn to dictate who would be married.

This version of Valentine’s Day was deemed “unholy” soon after the turn of the fifth century. It evolved into a religious holiday of feast and gained its name as Valentine’s Day after Saint Valentine, an ordained Catholic pope known for marrying many couples on this day.

Now known as a pricey holiday, the Valentine’s Day we know and love (or hate) is now typically celebrated in our society by lovers as they go to fancy dinners and purchase expensive jewelry for one another. According to ABC News, it was estimated that over 20 billion dollars was spent on lovers this past week for Valentine’s Day.