Many people at one time had a question, how did this day appear, and how did such a holiday come to Russia? In this article, I will try to discover and identify the key reasons for the emergence of the holiday—Valentine's Day, and also try to find out how this day began to be celebrated in Russia.
Initially, this day was a celebration of the memory of St. Valentine, as veneration of his martyrdom, without any connection with lovers.
Gradually, the holiday changed and became the way we know it. Although Valentine's Day is not an official holiday, many people love to celebrate February 14th.
History
Valentine's Day or Saint Valentine's Day is a holiday of Catholic origin, which is celebrated annually on February 14 in many countries around the world. The name of the holiday comes from the name of one of the two early Christian martyrs with the name Valentine—Valentine of Interamne and Valentine of Rome.
In the 17th century, the French church historian Tillemont put forward a hypothesis according to which the holiday goes back to the Lupercalia of Ancient Rome, which is one of the oldest Roman holidays, a shepherd's holiday of purification and fertility in honour of the god Luperk, who was identified with the Faun.
In ancient Rome, infant mortality was extremely high, and the oracle reported that in order to increase the birth rate, a ritual of physical punishment of women with the help of sacrificial skin was necessary. People who for some reason did not have children or did not have them at all were considered cursed and were inclined to mystical rites in order to gain the ability to bear children. Every year on February 15, a festival called “Lupercalia” was held here, during which animals were sacrificed. Whips were made from their skins. After the feast, young people took these whips and ran naked around the city, hitting women they met with a whip. The girls voluntarily set themselves up, believing that these blows would bring them fertility and easy childbirth.
In 494, Pope Gelasius I attempted to ban the lupercalium.
As the creators of the Orthodox Encyclopedia believed, it seems more likely that the celebration of St. Valentine replaced Lupercalia – the ancient Roman festival of female fertility in mid-February.
But historians William Friend and Jack Oruch believed that the hypothesis of the ancient Roman pagan roots of Valentine's Day has no particular basis. The notion that a pagan cult was replaced by a Christian celebration seems to be purely conjecture, which arose only in the 18th century among the antiquarians Alban Butler, who compiled the Butler Life of the Saints, and Francis de Sales due to the absolute lack of reliable data on Valentine, because of which an attempt was made to artificially combine the writings of the 14th century with the events that took place in the 3rd century. Scholars Michael Keillor and Henry Kelly also believe that there is no evidence for a link between current romantic narratives and the Roman holiday.
In Russia
The holiday arose and became widespread in the 90s, according to historians. And the reason for this was foreign cinema. For the most part, the holiday fell in love with young people. This fact was confirmed by the candidate of historical sciences, professor, and publicist Vitaly Tepikin. According to Tepikin, for a long time, the older generation perceived February 14 with scepticism. It seemed to them that there were already so many holidays in the country, and the new one was “neither hot nor cold.” According to the expert, the impetus was the collapse of the USSR, which led to familiarization with Western culture. And the new holiday was unusual and attracted young people, so they picked it up almost immediately.
As for the attributes, at that time it was customary for students to exchange valentines, says Professor Tepikin. The holiday slowly moved around the cities. February 14 was the day when the spouses “remembered each other” and thereby strengthened the institution of the family. In the first years of the collapse of the USSR, the holiday was not celebrated on a large scale, young people managed with simple valentines made of plain paper. Many confessed their love in this way.
According to Alexander Orishchev, the very meaning of the holiday has changed in modern Russia. In the context of the spread of consumer culture, some people began to perceive the holiday as a day when lovers show signs of attention to each other.
As the historian Orishev noted, something similar on February 14 was also common in pre-revolutionary Russia. Among the nobility, there was a fashion for all kinds of romantic greeting cards, which were usually given at balls. Holidays and divination were popular among the common people. Many of which had pagan roots. Professor Tepikin noted that the most famous “analogue” of St. Valentine's Day in Russia is Peter's Day.
Summarizing
The holiday came to Russia in the 1990s, after the collapse of the USSR, but pre-revolutionary Russia also had its own “analogues” of the holiday, the most famous “analogue” is the Day of Peter and Fevronia. One of the reasons for the appearance of the holiday can be considered the Lupercalia of Ancient Rome, although this hypothesis was not subsequently confirmed, we cannot know exactly the history of the holiday, since significant facts and historical records have either been lost or have not survived to this day.
На русском: https://zen.yandex.ru/media/id/623a1380b64df01e6ebe9709/kak-14-fevralia--den-sviatogo-valentina-stali-otmechat-v-rossii-623a13a2f0720b63241e93ef