Happy Valentine's Day to everyone enjoying the trappings of romantic love, and an early happy Singles Awareness Day to everyone else. I'd also like to point out that this coming Monday is President's Day, so we wish a belated Happy Birthday to President Lincoln (2/12) and an early Happy Birthday to President Washington (2/22).
Today's POTD will start with a history lesson on how Valentine's Day came to be, and end with a little dip into actual medicine.
In modern times, Valentine's Day is observed in much of the Western world as a celebration of love. C.S. Lewis (author of The Chronicles of Narnia) described four categories of "love" based on Christian and Greek philosophy: storgē, or the more widespread natural/instinctive love that arises from familiarity and empathy; philia, the love between true friends who share common values and interests, which he considered the "least natural" and "most freely chosen" form of love; eros, the passionate love directed towards an object of desire; and agape, a selfless and unconditional love which Lewis held as the pinnacle of love. Many schools of thought present other views on the etiology and expression of "love" as a concept, which I won't get further into the weeds about. Here in the USA we typically see partners having a nice evening in and/or out, and friends/classmates/coworkers exchanging tokens (i.e. cards and candy).
But how did we get to the candy-and-dates of today's Valentine's celebration?
Let's first go back to Ancient Rome, a time period always worth thinking about for many many reasons. The Romans observed many religious feasts and festivals whose dates were speculated to have been co-opted by their successors, and in this case there was indeed a major festival celebrated mid-February. Lupercalia, which was celebrated on or around what would later be considered Feb. 15, was a rite of health and fertility in which a dog and goats were offered to the gods in a ritual sacrifice, followed by the anointing of the priests with the bloody knife, and the subsequent washing of the blood with wool and milk; then, the priests would cut thongs from the animals' skin and run naked or near-naked around the hills and through the streets of Rome, and women would come to be struck by them to promote fertility and ease pregnancy. See the painting below. Even after the Christianization of Rome in 380 CE, Lupercalia would continue to be celebrated for some time despite the persecution from various papacies. It is often said that in 496 CE, Pope Gelasius I, a noted hater of Lupercalia, decreed that there would be a new Christian observance on Feb. 14 — the Feast of Saint Valentine. However, there are no primary sources attesting to this — the "Gelasian Decree" which is often erroneously cited only mentions Cyricus & Julitta and George as martyrs to be venerated, with no word on feasts or Valentine. There is a cotemporaneous epistle written by Gelasius to Senator Andromachus justifying the former's prohibition on the Lupercalia. But I digress again.
In Christian tradition, Saint Valentine was martyred on Feb. 14 in 269 CE. The earliest surviving attestations to his story are the Martyrologium Hieronymianum, which was originally written in the 400's CE, and the Passions of Saints Marius, Martha, Audifax, and Abachu; earlier, the Chronography of 354 mentions a church built by Pope Julius I in honor of a St. Valentine, the ruins of which have been found. According to those documents, Valentinus was a priest who was brought before Emperor Claudius Gothicus for denouncing Christian persecution and the pagan gods. After admonishing the Emperor, he then healed a young girl of her blindness; as his reward, the emperor had him beheaded, along with several witnesses to the miracle who had then converted to Christianity. 7th century sources make reference to an extant feast day honoring St. Valentine, so it can be presumed that the day was established at some interim time in the 500-600 CE range.
The next question is — how do we make the jump from a day venerating a martyr, to a day celebrating love? It's tempting to look at the debauchery of Lupercalia and say "there we go", but there's no true evidence of that linkage.
In the 14th century CE, famed author Geoffrey Chaucer (of The Canterbury Tales, and the best character in A Knight's Tale from 2001 feat. Heath Ledger) wrote the poem "The Parlement of Foules", which states "For this was on seynt Valentynes day // Whan every foul cometh there to chese his make", which is then followed by accounts of various birds-of-prey wooing an eagle while ducks and cuckoos heckle them all. Chaucer had intended his reference for a different St. Valentine who was honored in May, which made sense as that was the spring in England, and not the February winter associated with the more popular St. Valentine. Notably, the imagery of birds flocking to mate in spring was not uncommon in the poetry of that time. In the 15th century, during a bout of the plague in France, King Charles VI the Mad allegedly founded an organization called the "Court of Love" (differing from the 12th century Eleanor of Aquitaine's own "Court of Love") which called upon members to meet annually on Feb. 13 and sing love songs in front of a judging female audience. Apocryphal or not, this reflected the growing association between "birds mating in the spring", "romance", and "the St. Valentine's Day of Feb. 14", and the practice therein of men writing romantic poems to their lovers on that day.
Banality and commercialism began to encroach upon the scene in the 18th century, when advances in printing and industrialism led to the popularization of the Valentine's Day Card — a prewritten poem with accompanying printed art, for the illiterate or uncreative young man who lacks the ability to write his own verses but has the change to spare. In 1868, Cadbury introduced the heart-shaped chocolate-filled box which has since become an iconic part of the holiday. Marketing efforts would continue over the next decades from various sources, and the De Beers blood-and-slavery diamond company would soon add the feather of "Valentine's day jewelry" to their cap.
Now that we know about the history of Valentine's Day (and can weep for the extinction of Lupercalia, which sounds like a right splendid holiday), we can talk a little about its impact on peoples' psychological health.
After noticing an increase in suicide attempts presenting to their ED on Valentine's Day, researchers at the Department of Psychiatry at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham in England conducted a 5-year observational study comparing para/suicide attempts on Valentine's Day and Christmas vs two control days (Feb. 7 and Aug. 15). They found that rates of suicide attempts nearly doubled on Valentine's Day relative to the controls, with a smaller but still-significant bump on Christmas as well. A disproportionate amount of the holiday suicide attempts were by adolescents. More recent surveys of the general population found that self-reported symptoms of general anxiety, depression, rumination, and social anxiety all increased in the population of those who did not receive Valentine's Day gifts. The self-identified female population experienced greater duration of symptoms than the self-identified male population. Those under 40 were more likely to experience worsening depression than those over 40. The authors speculate that societal expectations/pressures may be the root, and offer the following bits of advice for singles (and couples) combating the "Valentine's Day Blues" (paraphrased):
– Love and accept thyself. The compassion and grace that you extend to others (including patients) should be offered to yourself as well.
– Give yourself a gift. Shopping therapy is real, and is an act of self-empowerment and self-expression. Or put the money into your retirement plan.
– Volunteering and other acts of altruism can be a healing balm on the psyche. And helps one keep their troubles in perspective.
– Engage in self-improvement. Identify reasons for your unhappiness and try to work out concrete solutions with attainable small steps.
– Stay busy and active. Idle hands are the devil's workshop.
That's all for today, and hope you all have a safe and wonderful holiday weekend!
References:
https://www.cslewis.com/four-types-of-love/
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Lupercalia
https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Journals/CP/26/1/Lupercalia*.html
https://www.tertullian.org/decretum_eng.htm
https://www.roger-pearse.com/weblog/2022/02/17/the-earliest-mentions-of-st-valentine/
Oruch, Jack B. "St. Valentine, Chaucer, and Spring in February". Speculum, Vol. 56, No. 3 (Jul., 1981), pp. 534-565.
https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/arts-blog/love-lessons-medieval-literature
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1662519/pdf/bmj00171-0029.pdf
https://journalofscientificexploration.org/index.php/jse/article/view/2445
