Valentine’s Day history goes back a lot further than cards and chocolate. There’s a saint, or maybe three of them, a Roman festival in February, a poet who made it romantic, and a candy company that almost killed off the little conversation hearts. Here’s the short version of all of it, plus where Valentine’s Day shows up on Usenet. If you want to read those old love groups yourself, UsenetServer is 70% off for our readers right now.
When Is Valentine’s Day?
Valentine’s Day is February 14 every year. It’s a day for couples, but plenty of people use it to tell friends and family they love them too. Most of us celebrate with cards, flowers, candy or a nice dinner out.
Who Was Saint Valentine?
Nobody knows for sure. The Catholic Church lists at least three saints named Valentine, and all of them died for their faith. The most popular story is about a priest in Rome in the third century. Emperor Claudius II thought single men made better soldiers, so he banned young men from getting married. Valentine married couples anyway, in secret, and Claudius had him killed for it around the year 270.
Another story says Valentine fell in love with his jailer’s daughter while he was in prison. Before he died, he wrote her a note and signed it “from your Valentine.” We still use that line today, even if nobody can prove it really happened.
Is Valentine’s Day History Tied to Lupercalia?
Maybe. The Romans had a festival called Lupercalia in the middle of February, around February 15. It was a spring festival about fertility, and it could get pretty wild. One old story says young men drew women’s names from a jar and paired up for the festival, and some of those couples ended up married.
At the end of the fifth century, Pope Gelasius I shut Lupercalia down and made February 14 St. Valentine’s feast day. Some historians think the church picked the date on purpose to replace the old festival. Others say that’s a stretch, and the two just happened to land in the same month.
How Valentine’s Day History Turned Romantic
For a long time the day wasn’t about love at all. That changed with the English poet Geoffrey Chaucer. In the late 1300s he wrote a poem about birds choosing their mates on “Seynt Valentynes day,” and people liked the idea. After that, poets and writers kept tying the day to romance, including Shakespeare.
The oldest valentine we still have is from 1415. Charles, Duke of Orléans, wrote a love poem to his wife while he was locked up in the Tower of London after the Battle of Agincourt.
A Short History of Valentine’s Day Cards
By the 1700s people in England were trading handwritten notes and little gifts on February 14. Printed cards came next, because they were easier than writing your own. In the US, a woman named Esther Howland started selling fancy lace valentines in the 1840s and became known as the Mother of the American Valentine. Then in 1913, the company that became Hallmark started making Valentine’s Day cards, and it’s been a big card holiday ever since.
Where Does Cupid Come In?
Cupid is the chubby little guy with wings and a bow. In Roman myths he was the son of Venus, the goddess of love. Anyone he shot with one of his arrows fell in love right away. The Greeks called him Eros, and in their stories he was a young man, not a baby. Nobody’s sure when Cupid got pulled into Valentine’s Day, but it’s easy to see why he fits.
What Happened to Sweethearts Candy?
Necco made those little chalky hearts that say “BE MINE” for more than a hundred years. When Necco closed in 2018, Sweethearts disappeared, and there were none in stores for Valentine’s Day 2019. Spangler Candy bought the brand and brought them back in 2020, though a lot of that first batch had blurry or cut-off sayings.
They’re back to normal now, and Spangler still adds new sayings every year. For 2026 they went with “Love in This Economy” hearts that say things like “SPLIT RENT” and “CAR POOL.” You can see them on their website.
How People Celebrate Valentine’s Day Now
It’s a huge shopping day, and that’s a newer part of Valentine’s Day history. The National Retail Federation says Americans spent a record $29.1 billion on Valentine’s Day in 2026, up from $27.5 billion the year before. Jewelry is where the most money goes, more than candy or flowers. You can see their numbers on the NRF Valentine’s Day page.
Valentine’s Day History on Usenet
Usenet had its own place for this long before dating apps. There was a newsgroup called net.singles back in the early days, and when Usenet reorganized its groups in 1987 it became soc.singles. There’s also soc.couples for people who are already together. Both are part of the soc.* group, one of the Big 8 newsgroup hierarchies. You can still read years of old posts in them, and some of the stories are sweet and some are pretty funny.
How to Read Them
If you’re new to it, our guide on what Usenet is explains how it works. You’ll need a Usenet provider to read the groups. UsenetServer is 70% off for Usenet.com readers, and the yearly plan comes with 3 free months and a free VPN. Easynews lets you search and read right in your web browser, and you get 3 free months through our link. We also keep a list of our Usenet special offers if you want to compare deals.