Valentine’s Day, also called Saint Valentine’s Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is celebrated annually on February 14. It originated as a Christian feast day honoring a martyr named Valentine, and through later folk traditions it has also become a significant cultural, religious and commercial celebration of romance and love in many regions of the world.
There are a number of martyrdom stories associated with various Saint Valentine connected to February 14, including an account of the imprisonment of Saint Valentines for ministering to Christians persecuted under Roman Empire in the third century. According to an early tradition, Saint Valentine restored sight to the blind daughter of his jailer. Numerous later additions to the legend have better related it to the theme of love: tradition maintains that Saint Valentine performed weddings for Christian soldiers who were forbidden to marry by the Roman emperor; an 18th-century embellishment to the legend claims he wrote the jailer’s daughter a letter signed “Your Valentine” as a farewell before his execution.
Valentine’s Day is a holiday celebrated every February 14. In 2026, it falls on Saturday, February 14. In many countries friends and loved ones exchange flowers, candy and gifts all in the name of St. Valentine.
During the Middle Ages, a common belief across France and England held that February 14 was the beginning of birds’ mating season, which added to the idea that Valentine’s Day should be an occasion for romance. The English poet Geoffery Chaucer was the first to record St. Valentine’s Day as a day of romantic celebration.
Valentine greetings were popular as far back as the Middle Ages, though written Valentine’s did not begin to appear until after 1400. The oldest known valentine still in existence today is a poem Charles, Duke of Orleans, wrote to his wife in 1415 while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London following his capture at the Battle of Agincourt. (The greeting is now part of the manuscript collection of the British Library in London.) Several years later, it is believed that King Henry V hired a writer named John Lydgate to compose a valentine note to Catherine of Valois.
By the mid-17th century, Valentine’s Day had become a celebratory day in English folk tradition that marked the coming of spring. A written history of the holiday from the early 18th century describes rural Englanders drawing names from a vessel to find their Valentines. The matchmaking lottery was considered a good omen for a paired couple’s future marriage.
Cupid is often portrayed on Valentine’s Day cards as a naked cherub launching arrows of love at unsuspecting lovers. But the Roman God Cupid has his roots in Greek mythology as the Greek god of love, Eros. Accounts of his birth vary. Some say he is the son of Nyx and Erebus; others claim his parents are Aphrodite and Ares; still others suggest he is the son of Iris and Zephyrus or even Aphrodite and Zeus (who would have been both his father and grandfather).
According to the Greek Archaic poets, Eros was a handsome immortal who played with the emotions of Gods and men, using golden arrows to incite love and leaden ones to sow aversion. It was not until the Hellenistic period that he began to be portrayed as the mischievous, chubby child ever present on Valentine’s Day.
By the middle of the 18th century, it was common for friends and lovers of all social classes to exchange small tokens of affection or handwritten notes, and by 1900, printed cards began to replace written letters due to improvements in printing technology. Ready-made cards were an easy way for people to express their emotions at a time when direct expression of one’s feelings was discouraged. Cheaper postage rates also contributed to an increase in the popularity of sending Valentine’s Day greetings.
Today, according to Hallmark, more than 145 million Valentine’s Day Cards are sent each year, making Valentine’s Day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year behind Christmas.
With no connection to the Valentine Day, “Matina Paru” of the Newar community is a similar occasion celebrated every year in December just the next day to full moon. The occasion is one of the aboriginal community inside Nepal among many. Matina Paru is a typical lovers’ day celebration of this community. All our readers know about “Valentine’s Day”. However, very few of us may know that the Newar community of Nepal, the Newars, also have their own original Valentine’s Day known as Matina Paru. It is a great irony for all of us that this culture, so important for this community as well as for all Nepalese, seems to be almost extinct nowadays.
According the Newars’ tradition, the day after YomariPunhi or Dhanya Purnima is known as “Matina Paru” among the Newa: for centuries. But, due to the popularity of western Valentine’s Day, only a handful of people celebrate this Original Lovers Day or Matina Paru of the Newa: Community these days. In Nepal Bhasa, “Matina” means “Love” and “Paru” means “Pratipada”. According to this community’s beliefs, the love and affection, or love proposals made on this Pratipada are successful and the love is long-lasting and permanent.