The history of Saint Valentine’s Day.

February 14 is well-known, all over the world, or, at least, in large part of it as the day dedicated to lovers: Valentine’s Day, or Saint Valentine’s Day. Born as a Christian celebrstion to honor the homonymous saint, Valentine’s Day has become an important cultural heritage, no longer as a religious celebration, but as a symbolic event of romantic love, but also a phenomenon of great commercial relevance. The traditional religious feast associates numerous stories of martyrdom to February 14, one of which is linked to the custom – according to the religious story – of the saint to celebrate marriage for the Roman soldiers of the empire, to whom, however, marriage was prohibited. Legend tell us that Valentine returned the sight to his judge’s blind daughter, and wrote her a letter signed “Your Valentine” as its farewell before the execution. Valentine’s Day died in 269 AD It was Pope Gelasius I in 496 AD. to formalize February 14 as a feast in honor of the saint. The day was first associated with romantic love within the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer in the 14th century, when the tradition of courtly love was at the his peak. In 18th century England, 14 February was established as an occasion in which couples expressed their mutual love by exchanging flowers, giving sweets and sending love letters. The symbols that today represent the most the Feast of Lovers include, the shape of the heart, but also the doves, as well as Cupid, the winged god of love. Even the key becomes a symbol of the celebration, alluding to an invitation that a suitor makes to the object of desire, inviting him to open his heart. In the 19th century, the tradition began of printing tickets dedicated to the feast. Nowadays the production of objects, sweets, printed matter dedicated to Valentine’s Day, as well as the initiatives linked to the feast, grows year after year.