Valentine’s Day is special for everyone, but extra special for couples. The girl bakes cookies for her guy, and the guy goes and buys flowers and teddy bears for his girl. 

Everyone wants to feel loved and appreciated, but do we really need a day for that? Aren’t people in love supposed to express their feeling without a special day?

To answer that question we need to go back in time. 

Valentine’s Day is a day to remember St.Valentine “originally called Valentinus,” said Margaret Stevens, De Anza College history instructor, a priest in third century Rome. Emperor Claudius II thought that single men made better soldiers than the ones that wives and families. He then outlawed marriages and engagements for the young men, according to pictureframes.co.uk. 

When St.Valentine heard about the new law, he secretly kept performing secret marriages for Catholic lovers. When Claudius found out what St. Valentine was doing, he imprisoned him and St.Valentine was executed on Feb. 4, 270. The story goes that while St.Valentine was in jail he sent the first “valentine” greeting to a young girl he fell in love with. The girl was St.Valentine’s jailor’s daughter and she was blind.  The girl visited him constantly while he was in prison and according to the story, St. Valentine was responsible for restoring her eyesight. Before his execution, he sent her a letter which was signed “From your Valentine,” an expression that is still used today. 

“The Roman Catholic church (did) not recognize Valentine as a saint and the romantic story associated with Valentine,” Stevens said. But in the year 496 Feb. 14 was declared a holy day in the name of St. Valentine by Pope Gelasius. 

That man was a great believer in love and Feb.14 is a day we need to not only think about ourselves but to give respect to those who sacrificed their lives for love.