Saint Valentine’s Day is a day to celebrate love and comes with many traditions. While this holiday has been around for quite some time, there are many questions about where its traditions originated.

Valentine’s Day is named after the Christian martyr Saint Valentine, but it is uncertain as to who this man actually was, said Jeffrey Bibbee, associate professor of history.

“The problem with Saint Valentine is that there are multiple people that actually kind of become Saint Valentine,” Bibbee said. “There are multiple martyrs and there are a lot of stories associated with Saint Valentine.”

One of these stories says that in the 400s, the Romans executed Valentine for marrying soldiers, which was illegal, Bibbee said. Another common story is he passed out paper hearts to soldiers going into battle, Bibbee said.

“The problem with all these stories is that nobody really knows for certain,” Bibbee said.

Valentine was a popular name, so there were several martyrs with the name, Bibbee said.

“There have been two that historians have gravitated toward,” Bibbee said. “Saint Valentine of Rome is the most common one that people talk about. He was executed for trying to convert soldiers to Christianity.”

The 14th century poet Geoffrey Chaucer started the association between Valentine and love, Bibbee said.

“It’s in the 14th century that Chaucer began to write poetry that references Valentine and talks about Saint Valentine being a patron of lovers,” Bibbee said. “Chaucer actually starts writing about Valentine and making these references to love and that seems to be about the first time that Valentine actually is associated with lovers and romance.”

The history behind Valentine’s Day is not always considered important in America, said sophomore Rebecca Joy.

“It’s important to know why we do the traditions that we do, so we’re not just running around and doing a bunch of silly things and having no true reason for (them),” Joy said.

Valentine’s Day has been celebrated in many different cultures and is celebrated as a religious feast day on different church calendars, but traditions like sending cards and flowers began in England in the 19th century, Bibbee said.

“In the 19th century, printing and paper and postage get really cheap,” Bibbee said. “Now you can send valentines through the mail very easily and it becomes quite popular to mail people valentines.”

Valentine’s Day in Western culture is celebrated on Feb. 14, which also coincides with when it is celebrated on the religious calendar, Bibbee said.

Valentine’s Day in Western culture is celebrated on Feb. 14, which also coincides with when it is celebrated on the religious calendar, Bibbee said.

“There’s always been kind of a lovers’ holiday in almost every culture,” Bibbee said. “We just happened to have piggy-backed onto an existing feast day because of the folklore around Saint Valentine. It seems like he was fascinated by love and young love so it seems kind of natural that we would gravitate toward that day.”

Rachel Herwick, a senior at UNA, said she would like to know more about the history of Valentine’s Day.

“What I know about it is many people think that it was Saint Valentine recognized by the Catholic Church,” Herwick said. “They recognized several people with that name, but all of them were martyred. That’s about all that I know about it. I suppose I wish there were actual historical records of who the man was and when it came about.”