In the article "Historically Incorrect Canoodling" author Stephanie Coontz brings to the light the how Valentine's day came about.
One example that supports this statement is in the article where it states that Valentine was actually a christian priest martyred in the third century. As stated in the article it says that Valentine fell in love with his jailor's daughter and wrote her a poignant goodbye letter and it was signed "from your Valentine".
Another example to state how Valentine's day came about is stated in the article where Feb. 14 St. Valentine's Day wasnt being celebrated as an romantic holliday, but it was in honor of Juno, which is a Roman goddess of love and marriage.
I found this article interesting because it shows that one person can change the world and make it into a long lasting event. For example, in the article it says that it would be very hard to find love in the first 1,500 years of church history. Even though it may have been hard to find love, Valentine fell in love with his jailor's daughter. After going after what he has believed in, his beliefs turned the city around because now when every 14th of february comes up, the men of the city line up to pick a name out of the jar to find which girls will be their sexual partner for the rest of the year.
Another reason why I found this article interesting is because back then Valentine's day wasnt even known or thought of and today, all everyone does is either propse to their loved ones, renew their vows, or express their passion and love for their significant other.
"Popular celebrations of valentine's day gained ground in the late 17th century, but not until 100 years later did most Europeans and Americans begin to agree that marriage should be based on love and young people should freely choose their own partners. Even in the 19th century there were still many defenders of traditional marriage who predicted that the new vogue for "marriage by fascination" instead of hardheaded negotiation would undermine the social order, and that high expectations of marriage would lead only to discontent".
This statement stood out to me the most because in 498 A.D, there was no Valentine's day, or if you were getting married it wasnt about being in love, it was about making your own business or getting more land ownership.
