Different authorities believe that Valentines Day began in various ways. What's more surprising, they are really right in their thoughts. The Valentines Day history is the history of love and romance celebration, two universal conceptions that are true for every human being in this world. That's why some people trace it to an ancient Roman festival called Lupercalia. Other experts presume that it is evidently connected with one or more saints of the early Christian church. Still, others link it with an old English belief the core point of which is the fact that birds choose their mates on February the 14th. The clever way is to say that probably it originated from a combination of all three sources including, of course, the belief that spring is a special time for lovers.

Ancient Romans held the festival of Lupercalia on February the 15th to ensure protection from wolves. The celebration of this festivity was regarded as a festival of purification and fertility. Each year on February the 15th, the Luperci priests gathered on Palantine Hill at the cave of Lupercal. That is from these implements of purification, or februa, the month of February gets its name. This act supposedly provided purification from curses, bad luck, and infertility. 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 A.D. 43, the British borrowed many festivals. Many writers link the festival of Lupercalia with Valentines Day history because of the similar date and the connection with fertility. Roman armies took Lupercalia customs with them as they invaded France and Britain.

In the year 496 AD, Pope Gelasius cancelled the festival of Lupercalia, citing that it was pagan and immoral. He chose Valentine as the saint patron of lovers, who would be honored at the new festival on the 14th of every February. And according to Valentines Day history we also have different versions of who was that saint. He may be a priest in the Roman Empire who helped persecuted Christians during the reign of Claudius II, for what he was thrown in jail and later beheaded on February the 14th. Some consider him to be a Catholic bishop of Terni who was beheaded, also during the reign of Claudius II. Other people think that he was someone who secretly married couples when marriage was forbidden, or suffered in Africa, or wrote letters to his jailer's daughter, and was probably beheaded. All variants are at the same time both possible and not.

Valentines Day gifts have long and picturesque history. They initially and throughout the years served as a mean to express somebody's feelings.The first modern valentine cards were addressed to the young French Duke of Orleans. He was captured in a battle and was held  prisoner in the Tower of London for many years. He was the most fruitful during his imprisonment and wrote countless number of love poems to his wife.

Chocolate appeared in the Valentine's Day ritual relatively late. The Conquistadors brought chocolate to Spain in 1528 and while they knew how to make cocoa from the beans, it wasn't until 1847 that Fry & Sons discovered a way to make chocolate eatable. Twenty years later, the Cadbury Brothers discovered how to make chocolate even smoother and sweeter. Chocolate was held in elaborate boxes made of velvet and mirrors and which retained their value as trinket-boxes after the chocolate was gone. Richard Cadbury created the first heart-shaped Valentine's Day box for candies sometime around 1870.

One can also use various jewelry presents nicely presented in a private atmosphere to a truly beloved person. There are a lot of other ideas for St. Valentines Day gifts but still all of them have one core point, which remains the same during the whole period of Valentines Day history. People sending St. Valentines Gifts long to find a real love. That's the reason for Valentines presents to be richly decorated with different sorts of hearts, cupids, candies, etc. The value of Valentines Day gift does not depend upon the amount of money spent on it but upon the message it brings. With those gifts you show your dear sweetheart that you love him or her, that you really care.