St. Valentine's Day

There are several legends associated with the origins of Valaentine's Day, but it is believed that before the church associated this festivity to a saint, there were ancient pagan traditions associated with the festival of Lupercalia, held from the 13to the 15th of February. This festival was to honour Lupercus and fertility. During the celebrations women's names were drawn by men, the couples would then remain together.

The origins of this celebration associated with St. Valentine date back to the third century in ancient Rome, where Emperor Claudius the second outlawed marriage because he wanted all the single men to become warriors. Despite this law, there was a priest named Valentine who secretly married young couples. Some legends state that once the emperor discovered this crime, he sentenced Valentine to death, and it was on the 14th of February that Valentine was beheaded. Another version states that Valentine was sentenced to jail and that he fell in love with the jail keeper's daughter. Valentine sent secret mensages to his lover and signed them "From your Valentine".

There are many popular traditions associated with this day:
- Name drawing: if you are in love with someone, your love will be reciprocated if you write the person's name on a piece of paper and put it up your sleeve, keeping it there for seven days;
- If you cut an apple open on Valentine's Day, the number of seeds you see will tell you how many children you will have;
- It was believed that a woman would know what kind of man she would marry depending on the birds she saw on this day.