Legend has it that it started in the time of the Roman Empire.

The modern Valentine’s Day is a time for friends, a time for family and a time for lovers. How did it all begin? The following are some of the origins of the celebration which has evolved into Valentine's Day as we know it.

In ancient Rome, February 14th was a holiday in honour of Juno, Queen of the Gods and the patroness of women and marriage. The following day, February 15th, began the ‘Feast of Lupercalia’.

The Lupercalia Festival was a chance for Roman children, normally kept strictly separated, to meet. The boys would each choose a girl’s name from a vase. The boy would then partner the girl he had chosen for the duration of the festival. Sometimes the pairing would last an entire year, and often the couple fell in love and married.

Under the rule of Claudius II, Rome became involved in many bloody and unpopular military campaigns. Claudius the Cruel, as he was known, had some difficulty raising the armies he needed. He believed that as married men, his soldiers wanted to stay at home with their families rather than going to war, and so to combat this, he forbade his soldiers from marrying or becoming engaged.

An Italian bishop, Valentine, defied the Emperor’s decree, and performed clandestine marriage ceremonies. He was eventually arrested, imprisoned and put to death on February 14th in the Year 270. He was later declared a Saint.

As the influence of Christianity grew in the Roman Empire, Lupercalia was renamed in hour of Saint Valentine, in recognition of his sacrifice for love. The pagan connotations of love and fertility have endured, and remain to this day.

Interesting bits and pieces

• In 496 AD, St Valentine's Day was declared a day of feasting by Pope Gelasius.
• The first Valentine was thought to be sent by a captured French Knight in London, after the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, to his wife home in France.
• Women during the 1700's hoping to dream of their perfect lover would remove the yolk from a hardboiled egg, fill it with salt and eat it all - shell included!
• During the 19th Century the English would choose the first person they met on February 14th as their Valentine.
• America was the first country to really establish flowers as gifts on Valentine's Day.
• The name "Cupid" comes from the Latin word for desire. The Greeks call this god "Eros" (E-ross), the god of love.
• The apple is sacred to "Venus", Roman goddess of love. It has long been associated with love divination.
• In Italy there is an old tradition for single woman to awaken before sunrise to keep a look out for any man to pass their window. It was believed that they would marry this man or someone similar, within that year.
• The old country name for the Daisy is 'measure of love' and it is still one of the most popular love tests. Pick off the white petals of the flower one by one whilst saying alternatively, "he loves me, he loves me not'. The last petal will reveal the truth.
• ENGLISH: "I love you." SPANISH: (Catalan) "T'estimo molt." (or Basque) "Ni maite zaitut." FRENCH: "Je t'aime ma (mon) cherie." GERMANY: "Ich liebe dich." ITALIAN: "Ti voglio bene." JAPANESE: "Anata wa aishiteru."