Valentine's Day: Its Origins and Writing Prompts

Whenever Valentine's Day is mentioned, I immediately think of love, kissing, roses, candy hearts, chocolate, and, of course, Cupid with his arrows. A lot of those thoughts come from advertising and cards made especially for Valentine's Day. What are the origins of this love-filled holiday and how can we use them in our writing?

I have always heard that it was named after Saint Valentine, a priest who died more than a thousand years ago. There were actually three early Christian saints named Valentine – one was a priest, one was a bishop, and all that is known about the third is that he came to his end in Africa. All three of these men were said to have martyred on February 14.

Supposedly at this time close to the end of the Roman Empire, Emperor Claudius II felt that young men who were married did not make very good soldiers because they were too attached to their families. As a result, he banned marriage for all of his soldiers. The Romans didn't like this law, but they didn't dare protest. Saint Valentine was not in favor of this law either and he would secretly marry the young couples who approached him. Claudius soon discovered what he was doing and had him thrown in jail.

While in jail, St. Valentine is rumored to have helped the jailor's blind daughter in some way. Claudius II was said to be impressed by this young man, but when Valentine refused to recognize the Roman gods or agree with the ban Claudius placed on marriage, the emperor became angry and ordered his execution. Another legend says that St. Valentine was in love with the jailor's daughter. Before his execution, he is rumored to have sent her a letter signed “From your Valentine.”

Lupercalia, an ancient Roman fertility festival, was celebrated on February 15. Pope Gelasius, in A.D. 496, proclaimed this holiday to be a Christian feastday in honor of Saint Valentine, and made it one day earlier.

As writers, how can we use this holiday or its origins in our fiction writing? Let's start with its origins. You could choose one of the Saint Valentines who lived during that time. The one who really piques my curiosity is the one that not much is known about, the one who died mysteriously in Africa. Why was he in Africa? What if he was there as a missionary? What if he followed a young lady there? What if he was in love with this young lady. Or what if she asked him to follow her there for some strange reason. What if he encountered cannibals in Africa? What if he meet up with some headhunters? What if he left his true love back in Rome? What if he was martyred, not for Christ, but for his beliefs about true love?

Emperor Claudius is the one who had Saint Valentine thrown in jail and, later on, executed. What if Valentine had been in love with the emperor's daughter and daddy did not approve of the match? What if he devised his ban on marriage as a way to keep his daughter single? What if the famous letter signed, “From your Valentine” was actually sent to the daughter of Emperor Claudius?

Valentine's Day was originally Lupercalia, the ancient Roman fertility festival. How did the Roman people feel about this change? What if they didn't appreciate one of their holidays being changed around at the whim of an emperor?

Where does Cupid come into all of this? Cupid, according to Roman mythology, was the son of Venus, the goddess of love. He spotted Psyche, a mortal maiden, and fell madly in love with her and they married. Venus, jealous of Psyche's beauty, was not very happy about this. Venus was not a very good mother-in-law and told Psyche that she was not allowed to even glance at Cupid. Of course, Psyche couldn't resist looking at her handsome new husband and looked. Venus discovered this and as punishment, she gave Psyche three really hard tasks. While performing the third and final task, Psyche died. Cupid, of course, was a bit upset at losing his new bride, so he brought her back to life. The other gods were so moved by the love that these two shared that they granted Psyche immortality.

How about setting the story of Cupid and Psyche during modern time. What if Cupid thinks he is mortal? What if he has no clue who he really is? What will happen when he falls in love with Psyche? Will Venus still be jealous of this lady's beauty? If so, what does she do? What if Cupid and Psyche are forbidden by his mama to be together? Do they listen? Or do they do what they want? What are the consequences of their actions?

It should be easy to write a love story centered on Valentine's Day, but why keep it just a love story? Your main character could be psychotic and could be obsessed with one certain individual that he or she feels is perfection. And this psycho will do anything to spend the rest of his or her life with this individual, no matter how this person feels about it.

Or Valentine's Day could be your day in court, the day the person who robbed the company you work for blind is going before a jury. You are the one who discovered what this person was doing, so you are the star wtiness. But you have since discovered that this person was elaborately set up and is completely innocent of any wrongdoing. What do you do?

Are there any writing prompts for this romantic holiday that you have come up with ? Please share them with the rest of us.