valentine's day is it a time for romance or just a way for companies to sell flowers and cards listen we can't tell you if that special someone loves you or loves you not this is just a video asking you to watch it it's the seven things you didn't know about valentine's day in ancient roman times valentine was a very popular name and there are several stories of saint valentinian martyrdom according to one tradition the roman emperor claudius ii declared that roman soldiers were not allowed to marry and then made weddings illegal a christian priest named
valentine found this to be quite a buzzkill and continued to perform marriages in secret according to another story a different valentine was imprisoned for helping christians and fell in love with the jailer's daughter he signed his final letter to her love your valentine apparently they were both beheaded on february 14th some say the church scheduled the feast of saint valentine during the pagan festival of lupercalia in an attempt to christianize the sexy holiday which included spanking women with goatskin to promote fertility in the coming year however the most direct descendant of our modern valentine's day
that's associated with love and romance is from english poet jeffrey chaucer in 1375 he wrote parliament of fowls which contain the line for this was on saint valentine's day when every bird comes there to choose his mate inspired the nobles of the 1400s began writing poems to their love interests as valentines a brutal practice at the time because it would take weeks to know if they'd been ghosted although you may recognize them more from their eggs during easter give the cadbury chocolate company a rose for creating the match made in heaven v-day and chocolate founded
in birmingham england in 1824 by john cadbury who was a quaker the company was originally a coffee and tea manufacturer john hoping that his drinks would serve as an alternative to alcohol drinking chocolates were all the rage back then and during the 1860s cadbury sold 16 varieties of the stuff the main byproduct was cocoa butter which cadbury began selling as eating chocolates chocolate covered nougats bonbons caramels and more in a red-hot marketing move to promote their variety of chocolates john's son richard sold them in heart-shaped boxes so that even when the chocolates were gone people
could save the box to keep their memories and valentines chocolate was already viewed as a sensual indulgence but this got the world's sweet tooth hot and bothered in a whole new way we already know that chaucer was the first to start the centuries-long tradition of students handing out cartoon-clad notes to their whole 4th grade class and inspiring those magical 11 words you bought this card at cvs on your way home didn't you but the oldest known valentine as we would recognize it came in 1415 from the romantic confines of prison charles duke of orleans referred
to his wife bonn of our magnac as his valentine in a letter he wrote to her while he was imprisoned in the tower of london during the hundred years war translated to english charles's poem reads my very gentle valentine since for me you were born too soon and i for you was born too late god forgives him who has estranged me from you for the whole year i am already sick of love my very gentle valentine so less of valentine and more the lyrics of an emo band from 2003 but still pretty good for the
middle ages in a not so happy ending charles was imprisoned for 25 years and bond died before he was released turns out the practice of trolling in the comments section far predates the internet all the way back to the victorian era back in the 1800s in addition to the valentine's sent as a profession of love people would send vinegar valentines often anonymously to people they didn't like the sentiments ranged from a lighthearted jab to seriously harsh scorned lovers would call out liars cheaters and alcoholics others insulted their enemies intelligence or physical attributes many of the
days suffragettes received vinegars by the bagaload mailing valentines was so popular that british postal workers were given special meal allowances to keep them going during the days leading up to february 14th card manufacturing had become much cheaper and easier during this time and one company in particular emerged to capitalize on the greeting card craze hallmark the shape of the red heart has become a universal symbol for love but where did the heart symbol come from the one that's used on everything from playing cards to emojis to ill-conceived chess tattoos scholars theorized it could have originated
during ancient times with a plant possibly a giant fennel called silphium the greeks and romans used the plant as a form of birth control and it became so popular as contraception and associated with sex that it was quickly farmed into extinction the ancient city of cyrene in present-day libya became so rich from farming silphium that it used the plant's shape on its currency which bore a striking resemblance to our modern day heart symbol others believe the symbol emerged in medieval times when scientists attempted to illustrate aristotle's ancient writings on anatomy where he described the human
heart as having three valves with a dent in the middle some just believe the symbol bears resemblance to the breast or buttocks imagine your mom sending you a thanks for cleaning your room text with a peach emoji thanks for saving us the embarrassment aristotle valentine's day in a few middle eastern countries brings a whole new meaning to the phrase you shouldn't have celebrating the holiday in pakistan malaysia indonesia and saudi arabia could get you severely punished the belief generally comes from muslim officials within these countries who see valentine's day as a christian holiday or believe
that it is un-islamic and promotes casual sex and drinking alcohol which are prohibited in the traditional muslim faith in the indonesian province of just the sale of gifts could have you publicly caned in malaysia the islamic morality police raided several hotels on valentine's day of 2011 arresting 80 muslims because they were sharing rooms while unmarried in saudi arabia five men were discovered dancing with six women they weren't related to on valentine's day and were sentenced in 2014 to a total of 39 years in prison and in india groups have pushed the idea of ditching the
celebration of romantic love and replacing it with a parent's worship day talk about a glow down the cute little cherubic cloud baby we know as cupid used to be a strapping young hunk named eros eros is from greek mythology which predates the romans cupid he was arguably one of the most powerful of all of the gods for he controlled the most powerful emotion love his quiver contained two types of arrows golden ones to strike overwhelming love and lead ones to invoke hate he wielded his weapons like a mythological cuff boy creating disastrous matches of godly
proportions in one story he shot a golden arrow at apollo who fell madly in love with the nymph daphne then shot daphne with a lead arrow causing her to be repulsed by apollo leading to a whole lot of drama classic greeks some scholars believe that the infantilization of eros was simultaneous with the fall of the social status of women in athenian society the greeks were intimidated by this god who could control their love lives but they weren't intimidated by women so by transforming eros into a cute little baby who always obeyed his mother aphrodite they
were much more at ease there was no reason to be afraid and now we've got an adorable chubby cherub to fawn over dear viewer you are as special as the moment i first saw you eight minutes ago no matter what day it is i hope it's full of chocolates and golden arrows with no vinegar in sight thank you for sticking with me for all these minutes it means the world to me love video you
