Why Is Valentine's Day on February 14? History, Wishes and Gifts

Valentine's Day is on 14 February because that is the feast day of a martyr named Valentine. The link to romance is later and literary: the earliest surviving text that ties the date to lovers is Geoffrey Chaucer's poem Parliament of Fowls, from the 1380s. The popular claim that it replaced a Roman festival called Lupercalia has no evidence behind it, and historians have rejected it. Below: what is actually known, what to write, ideas for a Valentine's Day spent apart, and a gift that arrives in Telegram.

Valentine's Day at a glance

As of 8 October 2026.

Who was St Valentine?

Early sources name more than one martyr called Valentine, and almost nothing about any of them is certain. The earliest list of Roman martyrs, the Chronography of 354, does not mention him. A later martyrology credited to St Jerome names a Valentine martyred in Rome and another in Africa, without a year. Catholic reference works describe three men tied to 14 February: a Roman priest, the bishop of Interamna (today's Terni), and a martyr in Africa. The first two were both buried on the Via Flaminia, and the Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church suggests their stories may describe one person. The diocese of Terni dates its bishop's martyrdom to 14 February 269.

The stories people repeat, such as the priest who married soldiers in secret or who wrote a note signed "your Valentine" from his cell, are later legend, not record.

Why did the Church drop St Valentine in 1969?

Because the historical record was thin. In 1955 Pius XII had already reduced his feast to a commemoration, and in 1969 the revision of the General Roman Calendar removed it from universal observance, leaving it to local calendars. That did not cancel the saint: the Roman Martyrology still lists Valentine on 14 February. The calendar change made no difference to the holiday people celebrate, because that holiday was never kept by the Church calendar in the first place.

When did 14 February become a day for lovers?

In the late Middle Ages, in poetry. Chaucer's Parliament of Fowls, dated to about 1382, says birds gather to choose their mates "on Seynt Valentynes day" and is the earliest surviving text to link the feast with love. Scholars dispute even that: Henry Ansgar Kelly has suggested Chaucer may have meant a different Valentine, whose feast fell in May, and Jack B. Oruch notes that 14 February in the Julian calendar of his time is 23 February by ours. The custom was well established by 1400, and the oldest surviving valentine is a poem by Charles, Duke of Orléans, written to his wife while he was held in the Tower of London after Agincourt (1415).

Did Valentine's Day come from the Roman festival of Lupercalia?

No evidence says so. Lupercalia was a Roman purification rite held on 13 to 15 February, and the idea that the Church replaced it with St Valentine first appears in 18th-century writing by antiquarians such as Alban Butler and Francis Douce. Modern historians, among them Jack B. Oruch, Henry Ansgar Kelly and Bruce Forbes, find no support for it. The popular detail that young men drew women's names from a jar is likewise missing from ancient sources. A related claim, that Pope Gelasius I set the feast in 496, rests on a misreading of a decree that never mentions Valentine.

Who sent the first printed valentines?

Mass-produced valentines grew out of the 1790s and 1800s. In 1797 a British publisher issued The Young Man's Valentine Writer, a book of ready-made verses. After Britain introduced the Penny Black stamp in 1840, valentines sent by post climbed to hundreds of thousands a year. In the United States, Esther Howland of Worcester, Massachusetts, began selling embossed paper-lace valentines shortly after 1847, and is remembered as the person who turned them into a business.

What is Galentine's Day?

It is 13 February, a day to celebrate your friends, and it started on television. The name comes from the Parks and Recreation episode "Galentine's Day", which aired on 11 February 2010, in which Leslie Knope throws an annual breakfast for the women in her life. In 2027 it falls on a Saturday, so a brunch fits. A short message works just as well if the friend lives elsewhere.

Valentine's Day wishes you can send

Original lines, for the people you are most likely to write to:

• Short and romantic: Of all the days in the year, I would still pick the ordinary ones with you. Happy Valentine's Day.
• For a partner far away: The distance is just a long way to say I miss you. Happy Valentine's Day. I'll be there as soon as I can.
• For a new relationship: I don't have a big speech. I'm just glad it was you who replied that day.
• For a long marriage: You still make me laugh at the worst moments. Thank you for the years, and for the next ones.
• For friends, on Galentine's Day: Happy Galentine's Day to the people who answer at 2 a.m. and never make me explain why.
• Playful: Roses are red, violets are blue, I'd share my last fries with exactly two: you and, okay, you again.

What are good long-distance Valentine's Day ideas?

The ones that make a shared moment out of a screen. Pick a time and keep it, because a planned evening beats a vague "talk later":

• Play something together while you chat. Our guide to games to play over text has word and question games that need nothing but a chat, and Telegram games for two lists those that run inside Telegram.
• Cook the same dish at the same time on a video call and eat "together".
• Send a short voice message every hour on the day instead of one long text.
• Write a letter by hand and photograph it, then post the real one.
• Send a gift that lands in their Telegram profile the moment they open the chat.

For 2027 there is one more thing to plan around: 14 February is a Sunday, and it is also the day of Super Bowl LXI. If one of you cares about the game, agree on the evening beforehand, or make it part of the date with a Super Bowl squares grid for two.

What Telegram gift suits Valentine's Day?

Telegram gifts are items that appear in the recipient's profile, bought with Telegram Stars and sent from a chat. Three of the regular gifts fit the day: the Love Heart and the Teddy Bear, 15 Stars each, and the Red Rose, 25 Stars. A rose does not wilt, and all of them stay in the profile after the day is over.

Telegram also ran its own Valentine's release: on 14 February 2025 Pavel Durov wrote that all nine Valentine's gifts had sold out within a few hours, for more than $5 million. Telegram's collectible catalogue also lists collections with matching names, such as Valentine Boxes, Heart Lockets, Cupid Charms and Eternal Roses. The standard way to send a regular gift is in how to send a Telegram gift, and what Stars are and what they cost is in what Telegram Stars are.

How to pass on a gift you won in Gift Club

There is a second route, the one we built. Gift Club is a Telegram mini app where you can win a Telegram gift and pass it to someone else with a link.

1. Win one. Boxes, scratch cards and games such as Plinko and Coin Flip pay out in Stars and in Telegram gifts. They are paid games: a round costs Stars, and a round can lose.
2. Open it in your collection. A gift you win lands there. You can send it to your own Telegram account, exchange it for Stars, or give it away.
3. Create a gift link. Choose Send to Friend and create a link. The gift is locked while it waits to be claimed.
4. Send the link with your wishes. They open it, claim the gift in the Gift Club app, and it appears in their collection. You are notified when it is claimed.

A gift link is one-time, and the gift goes to whoever claims it first, so send it in a private chat. If it has not been claimed yet, you can cancel the link and the gift returns to your collection. You cannot claim your own link.

What this app is, plainly

Gift Club's games are paid and for adults, and winning a gift is never guaranteed: you can spend Stars and win nothing. The return each game is designed to pay back is published, and a round can be checked after the fact, both explained in the RTP index and in provably fair verification. If you just want to send someone a heart in Telegram, buying the gift directly in Telegram is the certain route.

FAQ

Why is Valentine's Day on February 14?

Because 14 February is the feast day of St Valentine, a martyr of the 3rd century. The link to romance comes later: the earliest surviving text that ties the date to lovers is Chaucer's Parliament of Fowls, from the 1380s.

Who was St Valentine?

Early sources name more than one martyr called Valentine, among them a Roman priest and the bishop of Interamna (Terni), and little else is certain. The diocese of Terni dates its bishop's martyrdom to 14 February 269.

Did Valentine's Day replace Lupercalia?

There is no evidence for it. The idea appears in 18th-century writing and has been rejected by modern historians including Jack B. Oruch, Henry Ansgar Kelly and Bruce Forbes.

Is St Valentine still a saint?

Yes. In 1969 the feast was removed from the General Roman Calendar, which left it to local calendars, but the Roman Martyrology still lists Valentine on 14 February.

What day of the week is Valentine's Day in 2027?

A Sunday. Galentine's Day, 13 February, is the Saturday before.

What is Galentine's Day?

A day to celebrate friends on 13 February. It comes from the Parks and Recreation episode "Galentine's Day", first aired on 11 February 2010.

What can I send a long-distance partner in Telegram?

A message and a Telegram gift such as the Love Heart (15 Stars) or the Red Rose (25 Stars), which stays in their profile. A voice note and a game of two over text cost nothing.

What if the wrong person opens my gift link?

The gift goes to whoever claims it first, so send the link in a private chat. If nobody has claimed it yet, you can cancel it and get the gift back.

Keep reading

• How to Send a Telegram Gift — the standard route, step by step.
• Games to Play Over Text — for an evening apart.
• Telegram Games for Two — when you want a real match.