Valentine’s Day, also called St. Valentine’s Day, is a holiday celebrated on February 14 when lovers express their affection with greetings and gifts.

Given their similarities, it has been suggested that the holiday has origins in the Roman festival of Lupercalia, held in mid-February. The festival, which celebrated the coming of spring, included fertility rites and the pairing of women with men by lottery. At the end of the 5th century, Pope Gelasius I forbade the celebration of Lupercalia which is sometimes attributed with replacing it with St. Valentine’s Day, but the true origin of the holiday is vague at best. Valentine’s Day did not come to be celebrated as a day of romance until about the 14th century.

This content is adapted from Britannica's, "Valentine's Day".