TauPan on #emacs posted a link explaining Valentine’s day:
In ancient Rome, February 15th, was the Feast of Lupercalia. The festival observed and celebrated the rite of passage from boy into manhood and was dedicated to the god, Lupercus. On the eve of the festival, February 14th, the names of Roman girls were written on slips of paper and placed into jars. Each young man would draw a girl’s name from the jar and would then be coupled for the duration of the festival, usually for sexual experiences. ¹
Some googling reveals a different story, however:
The ritual involved the sacrifice of goats and a dog in the Lupercal by priests called Luperci who smeared the foreheads of two noble young men with the blood of the sacrificed animals and then wiped it off. [...] Then the luperci, clothed in loincloths, ran about the area, lashing everyone they met with strips of skin from the sacrificed goats. Young wives were particularly eager to receive these blows, because it was believed that the ritual promoted fertility and easy childbirth. These ceremonies were accompanied by much revelry and drinking. ²
And later:
Modern attempts to relate the Lupercalia to Valentine’s Day because of the mere (approximate) date seem very suspect to me. [...] More to the point, there is not the slightest shred of historical evidence for the connection. In the 5c, Pope Gelasius instituted the feast of St. Valentine (possibly a bishop of Terni in Umbria, although there are several other candidates), but we have no record of his motives: if you can see any relation between the celebration of the Lupercalia as you read it above and anyone’s celebration of Valentine’s Day, you’re a better man than I, or you have some exceedingly odd friends. ³
#Web