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Valentine’s Day
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Young girl in a classroom holds up a large pink heart-shaped Valentine card she made, smiling over the top of it, with other children and classroom supplies in the background.
A vintage sepia-toned image of two women embracing.
Valentine's Day card Illustrated 1910 Valentine card showing Cupid with wings and a blue sash, gathering red heart shapes from a pine tree into a basket. Text reads If you'd only be my Valentine.
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Young girl in a classroom holds up a large pink heart-shaped Valentine card she made, smiling over the top of it, with other children and classroom supplies in the background.
Valentine's Day Young girl showing a heart-shaped Valentine card that she made in her classroom.

Valentine’s Day

social custom
Also known as: Saint Valentine’s Day, St. Valentine’s Day
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Britannica Editors
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
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History

Valentine’s Day, holiday observed annually February 14, on which lovers express their affection with greetings and gifts. Valentine’s Day did not come to be celebrated as a day of romance until about the 14th century. (Read Britannica’s essay “Why Do We Give Valentine Cards?”) Given their similarities, it has been suggested that Valentine’s Day has origins in the Roman festival of Lupercalia, held in mid-February. The festival, which celebrated the coming of spring, included fertility...

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