Valentine's Day is a very old tradition, thought to have originated from a pagan fertility festival.
The Romans had a festival called Lupercalia in the middle of February, officially the start of their springtime.
As part of the celebrations, boys drew names of girls from a box. They'd be boyfriend and girlfriend during the festival and sometimes they'd even get married!
The Christian church decided they wanted to turn this festival into a Christian celebration and decided to use it to remember the death of St Valentine too.
Gradually, St Valentine's name started to be used mainly by men to express their feelings to those they loved.
How did it become a celebration?
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