14/02/2026
Happy Valentine’s Day from the MADE IN BED team to you! For a short history and beautiful, love-filled imagery, swipe and read on!
‘The earliest suspected version of Valentines day was pagan holiday called Lupercalia - a festival betweent the 13th and 15th of february, focused around fertility, albeit using techniques to encourage fertility that no doctor today would recommend. To spare you some of the gorier details, we will leave it at that.
The first official Valentine’s Day was held on the 14th of February in 496. It is believed that it was to commemorate Bishop Valentine, a young priest in Rome who secretly wed couples that weren’t allowed to get married under Emperor Claudius because he wanted young men to stay unmarried as they made for more and better soldiers.
When Valentine was apprenhended, it is said he feel in love with the jailer’s daughter, and that on the night before his ex*****on, Valentine passed a note to her reading ‘from your Valentine’.
When Pope Gelasius came into power in the late 5th century, he cemented the day into our modern culture as an annual celebration centred around love.’ -
Another version of the history of valentines day is founded in ancient greek mythology:
‘Cupid with his white wings, golden arrows and playful mood is a typical symbol of St. Valentine’s day, which straightly derives from the Roman god of desire and affection Cupid and his ancient Greek counterpart Eros.
Eros was the godly child of Aphrodite. Although Eros appears in Classical Greek art as a slender winged youth, during the Hellenistic period he was increasingly portrayed as a chubby boy.
During this time, his iconography acquired the bow and arrow that remains a distinguishing attribute; a person, or even a deity, who is shot by Cupid’s arrow is filled with uncontrollable desire.’ -
