How Valentine's Day has a bloody, violent and VERY unromantic secret history

Valentine's Day has long been considered a time to celebrate romance and love with someone special. Handwritten cards with messages of affection, chocolates, and red roses are all staples of February 14. However, the full history of Valentine's Day is decidedly less romantic than you might think, although no one has pinpointed the exact origin of the annual holiday. One theory is that St Valentine's Day, as it's known, originates from the Romans who celebrated the horrid feast of Lupercalia.

This included men sacrificing a goat and a dog, then whipping women as they believed this would make them fertile. Another of the most widely-believed accounts suggests that a priest, Valentine of Terni, was sentenced to death on 14 February for disobeying Emperor Claudius II. However, there were two St. Valentines in Roman times and either could be the namesake Saint, but neither dealt with matters of the heart.

Here, FEMAIL takes a look at the possible origins of the now romantic holiday... Valentine's Day has long been considered a time to celebrate romance and love with someone special, however the full history of the holiday is decidedly less romantic (pictured: Lupercalia festival). Lupercalia festival. The earliest possible origin story of Valentine's Day is the pagan holiday Lupercalia. Lupercalia was a violent, sexually charged festival celebrated in ancient Rome to promote fertility, health, and purification, which was held on 15 February each year.

Traced back to the 6th century B.C., Lupercalia's origins are as ancient as the founding myths of Rome. The festival saw men strip naked and sacrifice a goat and dog before grabbing goat or dog skin whips and using them on young women in hopes of increasing their fertility. Young women would line up for the 'drunk' men to hit them as they believed it would make them fertile. The festival saw men strip naked and sacrifice a goat and dog before grabbed goat- or dog-skin whips and spanked young women in hopes of increasing their fertility.

To make matters worse, the violent festival included a 'matchmaking lottery' in which men drew the names of women from a jar. The pair would then be coupled up for the duration of the festival or longer. Classics professor, Noel Lenski, at University of Colorado at Boulder, said Lupercalia was 'clearly a very popular thing, even in an environment where the [ancient] Christians are trying to close it down'.

Speaking to National Geographic, Lenski added: 'So there's reason to think that the Christians might instead have said, OK, we'll just call this a Christian festival.'. The professor explained how the church then declared the festival was to do with the legend of St. Valentine. When Pope Gelasius came to power in the late fifth century he put an end to Lupercalia. Soon after, the Catholic church declared February 14 to be a day of feasts to celebrate the martyred Saint Valentine.

Who is Saint Valentine?. The Roman Catholic Church recognises Saint Valentine as a real person who died in the third century in Rome. The Roman Catholic Church recognises Saint Valentine as a real person who died in the third century in Rome. Valentine of Terni was a third-century-priest who ministered to Christians in ancient Rome. Various accounts exist detailing the events that led to him becoming a martyr and subsequently being named a saint by the Catholic Church.

However his story is somewhat tragic, Valentine was a priest who was killed when he defied Emperor Claudius II. Claudius decided that unmarried men made for better soldiers than those with families and partners and thus forbade them from marrying. However, Valentine defied the Emperor's order and secretly continued to marry young men and women. When Claudius found out, he imprisoned Valentine and ordered him to be put to death, the priest was beheaded on 14 February as a consequence.

Emperor Claudius II decided that unmarried men made for better soldiers than those with families and partners and thus forbade them from marrying. Another Saint Valentine?. There are over 10,800 saints of which there are more than 30 Valentines. However two Valentines share many similarities, leading some researchers to wonder whether they were the same man. Both men were martyrs, put to death by the Roman Emperor Claudius in the third century.

They both were also said to have died on February 14, although years apart, according to records. However another account, claims that Valentine refused to renounce his Christianity when ordered to do so by Claudius and was then imprisoned. In this story, Valentine, who was in prison at the time, performed a miracle healing the jailer's blind daughter. The legend says that Valentine fell in love with the woman and, before his death, he wrote her a letter that he signed with 'Your Valentine'.