Valentine’s Day is upon us once more. It’s a time of candlelit dinners, heart-shaped sweet packing containers from the pharmacy and (relying in your relationship standing) watching previous romantic comedies when you drink wine by your self.

It’s an excellent celebration. However the place did it come from? And why can we care about it a lot?

Folks have been attempting to reply these questions for a very long time. The New York Instances contemplated the day’s origin in 1853 however referred to as it “a kind of mysterious historic or antiquarian issues that are doomed by no means to be solved.”

Effectively, it’s 2023 so we’re going to strive once more. Here’s a temporary information to a few of the main Valentine’s Day theories, from historical Rome to the current.

It might have been a Roman Bacchanal.

The most typical clarification for a way Valentine’s Day got here to be is the traditional competition of Lupercalia, a raucous, wine-fueled fertility ceremony through which Roman women and men paired off. This principle has appeared in information articles for many years.

Lupercalia was celebrated for hundreds of years in the course of February and finally, because the Roman Empire turned much less pagan and extra Christian, was remodeled right into a celebration honoring St. Valentine.

Noel Lenski, a Yale historian, instructed Nationwide Public Radio in 2011 that the competition was identified for its debauchery and nudity till Pope Gelasius I made it a Christian vacation within the fifth century.

“It was slightly extra of a drunken revel, however the Christians put garments again on it,” Mr. Lenski stated. “That didn’t cease it from being a day of fertility and love.”

There’s little dependable details about the lifetime of St. Valentine. The Instances reported in 1923 that the day could in truth have fun two totally different saints named Valentine who have been made right into a composite character. (Neither one in all them sounded significantly romantic.)

In keeping with one well-liked story, printed in The Boston Globe in 1965, St. Valentine was arrested after he defied an order by Emperor Claudius that forbade Roman troopers from getting married.

St. Valentine was later beheaded for his spiritual zeal, a demise that Roman males determined to have fun by pulling the names of eligible younger women out of an urn. “This practice endured for a few years and finally discovered its manner into Germany and England,” The Globe reported.

Or an opportunity to have fun spring in February.

Not everyone seems to be satisfied of that model of occasions.

Jack B. Oruch, an English professor on the College of Kansas who died in 2013, studied Valentine’s Day as a part of his analysis into the poet Geoffrey Chaucer. He was satisfied that Chaucer was the supply of our fashionable concepts about St. Valentine.

In a 1981 tutorial article, “St. Valentine, Chaucer, and Spring in February,” Mr. Oruch argued there was no documented proof of a romantic custom linked to St. Valentine earlier than Chaucer wrote the poems “Parlement of Foules” and “The Grievance of Mars” within the late 14th century.

Chaucer could have linked St. Valentine to romance as a result of it was handy: His saint’s day, on Feb. 14, came about at a time when Britons within the 14th century thought spring started, with birds beginning to mate and vegetation starting to bloom, Mr. Oruch wrote.

From Chaucer’s perspective, an added perk was that Europeans on the time thought “Valentine” was a nice-sounding identify. Different saints who have been celebrated in mid-February had names with much less poetic attraction: St. Scholastica, St. Austrebertha, St. Eulalia and St. Eormenhild.

It’s a compelling principle, however Mr. Oruch knew it was robust to compete with well-liked tales about romantic Romans.

“The article made no distinction,” he stated in a 2011 interview, in reference to his analysis. “All of the articles about Valentine’s Day every year repeat the identical myths.”

It’s time to place your self on the market.

No matter its origins, Valentine’s Day is now a giant deal.

It may be worrying for some individuals as a result of “it’s an evening with very profound further that means that hits primitive components of the mind linked with wanting,” stated Helen Fisher, a Rutgers College bodily anthropologist who research the evolution of human sexuality.

She stated the necessity for love was “a fundamental mind system that developed thousands and thousands of years in the past,” lengthy earlier than Lupercalia.

“It’s a time of self-appraisal and appraisal of your scenario,” she stated, particularly in case you’re single. “It is a day when one displays on what you’ve received and what you don’t have.”

It’s additionally a day to spend cash. Individuals are projected to spend $26 billion on Valentine’s Day this 12 months, up from $23.9 billion in 2022, in line with the Nationwide Retail Federation. Greater than half of shoppers plan to have fun and can spend a median of $192.80, the group stated.

Most of that may go towards romantic companions, however a large chunk can be spent on associates, co-workers, classmates and even pets. That displays a change within the vacation from a celebration of romantic companions to “an everybody-is-included romp” that celebrates totally different sorts of affection and attachment, Dr. Fisher stated.

So, what in case your solely Valentine occurs to be your cat?

Dr. Fisher, whose work entails utilizing scanners to review the brains of each the romantically dedicated and the lately dumped, stated there may be somebody on the market for everybody.

“This mind system is sort of a sleeping cat,” she stated. “It could possibly awaken at any time in any respect. You simply should get on the market.”