Valentine’s Day occurs every February 14. Across the United States and in other places around the world, candy, flowers and gifts are exchanged between loved ones, all in the name of St. Valentine. But who is this mysterious saint and where did these traditions come from and how did them got to our country? How did St. Valentine become associated with love and romance? Get the full story behind the holiday.

The history of it is shorouded in mistery. Althought legend sais that he was a priest who served during the third century in Roman Empire. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he outlawed marriage for the young ones. Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When Valentine’s actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death.

Also the legend say that he restored sight to the blind daughter of his jailer, and then he wrote her a letter signed „Your Valentine“ as a farewell before his execution. For these facts he is remembered as a martyr.

Guiley, Rosemary (2001). The Encyclopedia of Saints. “On the morning of his execution, he supposedly sent a farewell message to the jailer’s daughter, signed „from your Valentine.“ His body was buried on the Flaminian Way in Rome, and his relics were taken to the church of St. Praxedes.”

The relics of Saint Valentine were kept in the Church and Catacombs of San Valentino in Rome, which „remained an important pilgrim site throughout the Middle Ages until the relics of St. Valentine were transferred to the church of Santa Prassede during the pontificate of Nicholas IV“.The flower-crowned skull of Saint Valentine is exhibited in the Basilica of Santa Maria in Cosmedin, Rome. Other relics are found at Whitefriar Street Carmelite Church in Dublin, Ireland.

Let’s get to the point where people nowadays celebrate the feast and for example in the United States, about 190 million Valentine’s Day cards are sent each year, not including the hundreds of millions of cards school children exchange. Valentine’s Day is a major source of economic activity, statistics say that Valentine’s Day shoppers set new spending records.

In recent years, Romania has also started celebrating Valentine’s Day, and we’re celebrating it as everybody else do. We buy presents, flowers, candies and we party all night long at night. In Brasov, there are so many places where you can go.