Everyone now-a-days thinks of Valentine’s Day as romantic or even just appreciating the love you have for your friends and family. Unfortunately, Valentine’s Day came about because of a rather dark and for sure far less romantic reason. Feb. 14 has always been the day for Valentine’s. After the 5th century, Pope Gelasius declared Feb. 14 St. Valentines’s Day and was also more religious than romantic.

It all goes back to when the Ancient Roman calendar called Lupercalia celebrated fertility. The custom of the day was for men and women to be paired by choosing out of a jar. Why do we celebrate Valentine’s Day on February 14? Well, that is because early Christians often opted to celebrate some holidays on days with existing celebrations for example, Christmas and winter solstice.

After his execution by the Roman Empire in the Middle Ages, the era of crazy love romantic statements like poems, songs, paintings were the word “Valentine” started being used to symbolize love. Now it is still used to show how much love is given, more than 250 million roses are produced for Valentine’s day with red roses making up nearly two-thirds of that number.