Where the Red in Valentine’s Day Comes From

Before you rush right out and buy your cutie some chocolates and a funny valentine it might be interesting to find out the true origins of this 24-hr love-fest we now call Valentine’s Day.

Seems like it has its roots more within ancient Roman lore and legend called the Lupercalia Festival than some old Christian fable that its name might imply.

That festival of antiquity did deal with the ideas of fertility and purity in the form of pure cakes and vestal virgins offering up prayers before two naked young boys, representative of Rome’s founders Romulus and Remus, reportedly nursed and raised by a wild she Wolf. The festival ended each year on February 15 with the sacrifice of a dog and goat and having their freshly flowing red blood smeared on the boy’s bodies as it was cleansed away with the the sacrificed goat’s milk. At least there was red involved.

To learn more about the true origins of what we now celebrate as Valentine’s Day, GO HERE.