The Origin of Valentine's Day


Valentine’s Day is a day of love when people, married or single express tokens of affection for the ones they love or feel fond of. Although this seems to be a day of harmless fun to the uninformed, most people celebrate this day without care or knowledge of its origins.

There are many legends associated with the origin of Valentines Day, but the most popular one goes back to a priest called Valentine, living in the third century.


During the time of Emperor Claudius II, soldiers were forbidden to marry. This was because Claudius carried out battles on many fronts throughout the Roman Empire, and he needed young men to go to war. The law in Rome at the time was that when a man married, he could not go to war or be sent out of his home town for a year. However, there was a priest called Valentine who believed in the sanctity of marriage, and he continued to perform marriages secretly. This incurred the wrath of the Emperor and he ordered that Valentine be beaten to death with clubs and then beheaded.


As with all Christian holidays, few realise (or even care) that on Valentine’s Day, you are actually carrying out a fertility rite that has pagan roots. In ancient Rome, centuries before Christianity, a festival was celebrated on February 15th called the Lupercalia. ‘Lupercalia’ means ‘wolf  festival’.  This festival was held in honour of the twins Romulus and Remus who had been nursed by a she-wolf in a cave on Palatine Hill, before they founded Rome. The Romans believed that Lupercus, a god  who hunted wolves, would protect the livestock and the people of Rome from being devoured by packs of wolves.

The Lupercalia celebrations were carried out, with two village boys being  smeared with blood. They were then dressed in goat skins and ran through the towns and streets, beating women with whips. Those that were whipped were regarded as purified. This practice is where the month February gets its name. The Roman word februa, means purification. The Romans believed that the flogging, purified women from infertility.

The colour red became sacred to this day because of the blood sacrifice and the blood purification from the whips. Mass nakedness and animal sacrifice was also carried out on this day.

The month of February was sacred to the Romans. They held it in honour of Juno Februata, their goddess of love and fertility. The Luperci priests would gather all the people together in a cave on Palatine Hill. They would put billets (small pieces of paper) with the names of women written on them in a large box called an urn. Whichever name the men picked out of the box, that person would be their partner for the year. This is where the concept of dating comes from. Erotic games and wild orgies were celebrated throughoutRome.


In 325 A.D. Constantine made Christianity the state religion of the Roman Empire. In an attempt to do away with pagan practices, it had long been a custom of the Roman church to ‘Christianize’ pagan festivals. The pagan god Lupercus, was substituted by the church, for a patron saint called Valentine.

In his book, ‘Babylon Mystery Religion’, Ralph Edward Woodrow, explains that:

“Since converts from paganism were reluctant to part with their ‘gods’- unless they could find some satisfactory counterpart in Christianity – the gods and goddesses were renamed and called “saints”.


The name ‘Valentine’ comes from the Latin word ‘valens’meaning ‘mighty’ or ‘strong’. Turning to Genesis 10:8-9  wefind that Nimrod was worshipped with that title:


Nimrod was worshipped throughout the ancient world under many names and guises. For example, in Greece - from where the Romans received most of their mythology - Lupercus was known as Pan, the god of light. The Phoenicians called Pan, Baal. Baal was another name for Nimrod. Nimrod was worshipped as the mighty hunter, especially of wolves.  


We all associated Cupid with Valentines Day but most of us not aware of who he symbolises. Cupid was the son of Venus, the goddess of love, according to mythology Cupid was responsible for making unsuspecting men and women fall in love with his invisible bow and arrow. He would strike men and women in the heart, causing them to fall in love with intense passion. The name Cupid means ‘desire’ and for this reason Cupid began to be regarded as the ‘god of the heart’. In his book, The Two Babylons Alexander Hislop explains:

‘The Heart’ in Chaldee (Babylonian language) is ‘Bel’    

The English word ‘heart’ is rendered ‘Bel’ in Chaldee. Bel or Baal is another name for Nimrod. Therefore, Cupid is none other than Nimrod.

In addition to the heart Cupid was also symbolised with the bow and arrow.  These implements of hunting show that Cupid is Nimrod ‘the mighty hunter.’


The ‘pink love heart’ that is displayed to us as a Valentines symbol is not what we think it is. The shape that is supposed to be a figure of the human heart is more accurately a depiction of the female genitalia. The so-called ‘love heart’ is a phallic symbol. A phallus is the figure of the male or female sex organ that is venerated and worship. 

Some might find these images distasteful but they quite clearly show the similarities between the loveheart and the vagina.



Pagan customs and the worship of the Heavenly Father do not mix. It was through pagan practices that the worship of Satan was camouflaged. Those who bowed their knees to pagan precepts were really bowing down to the devil. Today Satan is still camouflaged in modern society through pagan holidays that are presented as a harmless bit of fun.  

Ist Corinthians 10:20-21 says:

“But I say, the things that the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not God: and I not would that ye should have fellowship with devils. Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye can not be partakers of the Lord’s table, and of the table of devils.”