Growing up, I went to a Catholic girls’ school K through 12. The whole school was housed in one giant brick building with a huge playground on a full city block. The first floor housed the elementary school and extended out into a large gymnasium; the entire second floor was the high school including science labs and special facilities, as well as administrative offices. A cafeteria that could seat the entire student body if necessary was in the basement with walkouts to the playground. Now there are all sorts of stories to be related about this primary educational experience in a small town in Texas, but for now, we will talk about Valentine’s Day.

     Every holiday and every holyday at Nazareth Academy was an event. The good nuns (yes, we had nuns as teachers then, and they lived in a convent across the street from the school) helped us mark our days throughout the year, teaching us as we went about the historic, secular, or religious significance of the special ones. Bulletin boards were always decorated in celebration of whatever occasion was at hand, and often we students helped to create those decorations. Visitors actually came from other schools and other towns to see the lavish Christmas decorations fashioned by talented teachers and students at NA. (No doubt all this was the genesis of my life-long determination to decorate my own home and my own classrooms for every event, however obscure.)

     But back to elementary school. When Valentine’s Day was on the horizon, the good nuns started creating hearts and flowers in pink and red and, of course, delivering information about St. Valentine and the origin of the day. That history contains several different legends, but interestingly, almost everywhere in the world that Valentine’s Day is celebrated, the date is always February 14. The nuns, of course, attributed that to St. Valentine. 

     As is so often the case with religious holidays, however, the significance of February 14 had some pagan roots well before the advent of Christianity. One tradition claims it was a holiday in ancient Rome called Lupercalia, which marked the beginnings of spring. Another attributes it to a Roman festival called Juno February during which young people chose their future spouses by picking a name out of a paper box (an important historic detail here to keep in mind.) 

     We don’t actually meet St. Valentine until the third century in Rome, just as Christianity was beginning to spread. Legend has it that Emperor Claudius II (268-270 AD) issued a law forbidding young men to marry, ostensibly so they would not have family ties when being conscripted for the army. The real reason, though, was to prevent the spread of Christian marriages. A young physician-turned-priest named Valentinus thought this unjust and so began secretly performing marriages among Christian couples. When the Emperor found out, Valentinus was arrested and stoned to death on February 14, 269. In 496, Pope Gelasius decreed that February 14 be celebrated as St. Valentine’s Day.

     There are variations on the particular story of St. Valentine, and even indications that there might have been more than one Valentine, but the February 14 date of celebration has endured down through the centuries. And wherever Valentine’s Day is celebrated, it is always associated with love, marriage, and friendship. In the United States, Valentine’s is a huge commercial holiday, with spending on flowers, candy, jewelry, clothing, cards, and dining projected to exceed $29 billion in 2026 (according to the National Retail Federation). Over half of all adults celebrate the holiday and, according to the National Restaurant Association, Valentine’s is second only to Mother’s Day for dining out. Affordability be damned.

     So, okay, back to elementary school. There was always a Valentine’s Day party planned each year for the class.  We (our moms) would bring in cupcakes and cookies, and we (students) would bring in our decorated shoebox “mailboxes” to receive all the little Valentine cards from our classmates. We set out our boxes on the wide sill beneath the tall windows on one side of the classroom. There was always an unspoken competition among us for the best, most elaborate, most unusual “mailbox,” but never over the number of Valentines received. In true Christian fashion, we were instructed to deposit a signed Valentine in every classmate’s box, whether we were personal friends or not. No one was to be left out (and those who didn’t have a shoebox at home were somehow always provided with one to decorate). 

     Now that I’ve discovered  the history of Juno February, I see where the idea of those little mailboxes might have originated. And now that I have gone out looking for packages of those inexpensive Valentine’s cards for children in preparation for this post, I’ve found that not only are the cards still sold, but already decorated “mailboxes” with slits in the top are on supermarket shelves as well. (Photo above.) Hallmark even sells Valentine classroom kits with a box, stickers, and 32 cards, including a special one for the teacher (for around $10). Guess busy parents, and even the kids themselves, no longer have the time to shop, think and create.

     Funny how a brief glimpse into the remote past can further inform the present so many years later. For example, in writing this, I realize that the fact that I went to school for 12 years with essentially the same group of 59 girls (the number in our graduating class) explains why, even at this age, I still have a number of childhood friends of over 70 years duration. Making Valentines and mailboxes explains why I still make some Valentine’s cards and send out quite a few each year; and thinking about those cupcakes at the parties explains why I have made, and continue to make, heart-shaped cupcakes with pink icing every year since our son was a little boy. Most of all, I am reminded that thoughts of the people I love and the friends I cherish make Valentine’s Day a warm, sunny day in an otherwise cold, grey and depressing month.