Why Hallmark, Hershey's and Godiva Love You

The history of Valentines Day is about as disputed as the reason for why we still celebrate it today. To this day, the actual roots of the holiday are still very vague, no doubt beginning with some religious saint or martyr yet inevitably transformed into a way for Hallmark and Godiva to boost earnings reports. Nonetheless, whatever its reason for existence, it is still a significant day to millions of people around the world.
Originally, there were several different individuals named Valentine who were martyred in the first few centuries A.D. However the martyr named Valentine of Rome is the one most commonly believed to be the source of the holiday. According to legend, Valentine sent the first valentine himself. At the time, Emperor Claudius outlawed marriage because he felt that men were better soldiers when single. Of course, Valentine, the courageous, passionate type who women adore, loved a woman so much that he had to get married. Because of this, he was sent to jail. While in prison, Valentine fell in love with a young girl and before he died, he wrote her a letter, which he signed 'From your Valentine.’
This story, which is straight out of a Danielle Steele novel, has been responsible for billions of dollars spent, yet at first, the holiday was celebrated in a much different way. Originally, it was a religious festival of purification and fertility. To begin the festival, members of an order of Roman priests, would gather at the sacred cave and then sacrifice a goat, for fertility, and a dog, for purification. They then sliced the goat's hide into strips, dipped them in the sacrificial blood and took to the streets, gently slapping both women and fields of crops with the strips. Roman women believed the strips would make them more fertile in the coming year. Next, all the young women in the city would place their names in a big urn. The city's bachelors would then each choose a name out of the urn and become paired for the year with his chosen woman.
How these festivities eventually turned into a goldmine for card and flower companies is a testament to capitalism, as ceremonies for bearing children were transformed into Cupid shooting love arrows and men bustling about for dinner reservations and that last batch of decent looking rose bouquets left.