History of Valentine's Day
To love or not to love? To believe in love or in sin? That last one is the real question when it comes to the history of Valentine's Day. While most think the holiday has Christian origins, others point out some very possible pagan, Roman ones. The truth is both. Valentine's Day is a day originating in some very un-Christian practices that was later claimed and reinvented by the church. Reading about the day of love can be both confusing and depressing. Confusing when it comes to pinning down the true author of such a romantic day because there are at least seven different theories that presume to be the real explanation of its origin. One of the most compelling pieces of history has to do with the legend that Valentine's Day was created to commemorate the death of at least two martyrs in the Catholic Church. A priest that was killed in 270 CE by the emperor Claudius II Gothicus, who wrote a love note to his jailer's daughter and signed it as "Your Valentine...