By Rachel Chenard
Contributing Writer

Odds are that right about now your neighbor’s door (or perhaps even your own) is decked out with sparkly pink and purple hearts.

Everywhere you go there are bake sales selling heart-shaped treats and couples discussing their Valentine’s Day date night plans.

The holiday, however, wasn’t always gifts of chocolate and roses. In fact, it has a fairly dark history.
Let’s start with the name; who exactly is St. Valentine?

As it would turn out, Valentine is the name of two different men, both murdered on the same day, Feb. 14 to be exact, by Emperor Claudius II in Ancient Rome.

Catholics viewed the men as Martyrs, and thus the name St. Valentine’s Day came about. As time went on, the holiday proved to be an even more gruesome one.

Ancient Romans celebrated the day by sacrificing goats and dogs and then using the hides of said animals to whip women, who were told that the ritual would make them more fertile.

The day also included matchmaking, in which men would pull the names of women from a jar, who they would then continue to abuse. Not exactly the romantic holiday we now know!

The romanticizing of Valentine’s Day came about largely with the help of William Shakespeare, whose work was quickly spread throughout Europe and England, particularly during the Renaissance.

Hallmark was the real game-changer, though, when in 1913 they began the mass production of Valentine’s Day cards. Since then the day was never the same. Valentine’s Day has morphed from a day of pain and suffering into a commercialized holiday, one full of candy hearts, love notes, and expensive jewelry.
That said, some might still consider that a day filled with pain and suffering.