The Unbiblical Origin of St. Valentine's Day

Here we are again ── another civic year, and another St. Valentine’s Day. If you are a true Christian, should you be celebrating February 14th as St. Valentine’s Day?

Our beloved apostle John was inspired to write ──

“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16) For all that is in the world ── the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life ── is not of the Father but is of the world. 17) And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.” – 1 John 2:15-17.

Truly, St. Valentine’s Day is a worldly holiday. It was essentially built upon “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.” The true origin of St. Valentine’s Day is outside of God’s living word ── the Holy Bible.

True Christians who might be tempted to compromise should ask themselves whether the origins of St. Valentine’s Day are biblical or pagan.

This is a subject that I researched in my youth, and it wasn’t too hard to figure out.

Notice this from The World Book Encyclopedia (Valentine’s Day. Volume 20. 1993, pg. 261) ──

“The ancient Romans held the festival of Lupercalia on February 15 to ensure protection from wolves. During this celebration, young men struck people with strips of animal hide. Women took the blows because they thought that the whipping made them more fertile. After the Romans conquered Britain in AD 43, the British borrowed many Roman festivals. Many writers link the festival of Lupercalia with Valentine’s Day because of the similar date and the connection with fertility.”

The online Encyclopedia Britannica (Valentine's Day) says  ──

“ … … the holiday has origins in the Roman festival of Lupercalia, held in mid-February. The festival, which celebrated the coming of spring, included fertility rites and the pairing off of women with men by lottery. At the end of the 5th century Pope Gelasius I replaced Lupercalia with St. Valentine's Day.”

Also, this pagan being named Cupid (a son of Venus) was also involved. According to a book I have in my library - Bulfinch's Mythology The Complete Texts - it states ──

“Cupid. The god of love in Roman mythology (Lat. cupido, desire, passion), is identified with the Greek Eros; son of Mercury and Venus. He is represented as a winged boy, carrying a bow and arrows. One legend says that he wets with blood the grindstone on which he sharpens his arrows.”

(Bulfinch's Mythology, Bulfinch, T., Cupid - Dictionary and Index, Crown Publishers, Inc., © 1979, pg. 897).

Does this St. Valentine’s Day sound to you like a holy festival of love or a pagan holiday of lust?

A very bold source writes ──

“The pagan celebrations were reworked to fit the martyr theme—after all, early and medieval Christianity did not approve of rituals that encouraged sexuality. Instead of pulling girls’ names from boxes, it is believed that both boys and girls chose the names of martyred saints from a box. It wasn’t until the 14th century that customs returned to celebrations of love and life rather than faith and death. …

As with so many other holidays that have pagan roots, divination came to play an important role in the development of modern Valentine’s Day. People looked to all sorts of things, primarily in nature, to find some sign of who might become their mate for life—their One True Love. There were also, of course, all sorts of things which came to be used to induce love or lust.”

(Cline, A., Valentine's Day: Religious Origins and Background, 31 Jan. 2019. Retrieved 6 February 2025).

St. Valentine’s Day is from pagan sources and the Roman Catholic Church modified it and the majority of Protestant daughter churches have embraced it, which is why some Europeans also declare it to be a day of birds mating ── as this Catholic Standard article states.

Lupercalia was associated with various Roman “love gods and goddesses,” such as Juno Februata, Eros, Cupid, Kama, and Priapus.

Notice this from the Leftist Wikipedia ──

“ … … an ancient Roman goddess, the protector and special counselor of the state. A daughter of Saturn, she is the wife of Jupiter and the mother of Mars, … As the patron goddess of Rome and the Roman Empire, Juno was called Regina (“Queen”) and was a member of the Capitoline Triad. … The last of her yearly festivals was that of Juno Sospita on February 1. … Hence the community invoked the protection (tutela) of the warlike Juno Sospita, “The Saviour.”

A holiday for the queen of heaven?

What does God’s living word say concerning this? ──

“ ‘... the women knead dough, to make cakes for the queen of heaven; and they pour out drink offerings to other gods, that they may provoke Me to anger. 19) Do they provoke Me to anger?’ says the LORD. ‘Do they not provoke themselves to the shame of their own faces?’ 20) Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: ‘Behold, My anger and My fury will be poured out on this place - on man and on beast, on the trees of the field and on the fruit of the ground. And it will BURN and not be quenched’” - Jeremiah 7:18-20.

“This says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saying: ‘You and your wives have spoken with your mouths and fulfilled with your hands, saying, ‘We will surely keep our vows that we have made to burn incense to the queen of heaven and pour out drink offerings to her.’ You will surely keep your vows and perform your vows!’

26) Therefore hear the word of the LORD, all Judah [and might I say all the house of Israel] … ‘Behold, I have sworn by My great name,’ says the LORD, ‘that My name shall no more be named in the mouth of any man of Judah [or even in the house of Israel] in the land of Egypt [even spiritual Egypt], saying, ‘The Lord GOD lives.’ 27) BEHOLD, I will watch over them for adversity and not for good. ... [they] shall be consumed by the sword and by famine, until there is an end to them’” - Jeremiah 44:25-27.

Friends, whether St. Valentine’s Day was the Feast of Lupercus/ Lupercalia or a celebration of a “Queen of Heaven,” a Roman goddess named Juno, or any other pagan festival ── it is NOT listed as one of the “feasts of the LORD” – see: Leviticus 23:1-44.

This world’s modern practice of giving Valentine’s Day cards or candies, or asking someone to “Be My Valentine” appears to be directly connected from an ancient “sexual lottery.”

NO ONE who professes our Lord Jesus of Nazareth as our Savior should celebrate and observe February 14th as St. Valentine’s Day, or Lupercalia for that matter. It began as a sexual lottery and continues to have lustful connotations ── even in this 21st-century world.

Even modern scholars and historians have come to see this ── shouldn’t you as well? □