My Internet Valentine's Day Experience

My experience searching for the history of Valentine’s Day using solely non-academic internet resource was an interesting one. It took some doing to completely remove the idea of credited resources from my head and write a brief essay based on facts that I have no real idea of where they are coming from or if any of them are verified by a legitimate source. After wading through several of these websites I selected a few that we thought to be at least not completely nonsensical and shared some common themes and ideas. At first I was frustrated by the lack of a concrete story of why Valentine’s Day is celebrated and blamed mostly these internet sites for not being serious sites that took time to verify the information that was posted on them. But then after reading through them some more, I noticed that the reason it was so difficult to find a concrete answer as the history of Valentine’s day is because there is no concrete answer or history as to the history of it in real life.
All of these stories have some variation of a Father Valentine and his opposition with Emperor Claudius and his eventual imprisonment. The internet and these sites themselves can’t be held responsible for a lack of solid historical information when there is no solid historical information to be found anywhere. Valentine’s Day is more of a legend or realistic tall-tale and therefore its historic content is near impossible to verify. Once I came to that conclusion the rest of my experience researching and writing the essay was more focused on keeping track of and organizing the many different variations of the story. But even with that, the fact that there are so many variations with many similar parts and events only leads to the credibility of the stories of Valentine’s Day’s history.

History of Valentine's Day

February 14th. The mere date can invoke feelings of love and passion, or despair and loneliness. But for such a celebrated holiday that’s capable of running the full gamut of emotions for different people worldwide, there is a less than uniform explanation of why the day is celebrated and its historical roots, unlike other holidays like Passover and Easter which have a much clearer historical cause for their celebration. After taking to the World Wide Web in the hope for a clear understanding of the history of Valentines Day I realized that the information I had found was as varied as the websites themselves. While there was far from an exact or conclusive history many of the websites included similar themes and information.
Throughout the majority of the website there was an emphasis of some variation of the story of a Roman Catholic priest named Father Valentine and his disagreement with Emperor Claudius II. Claudius the Cruel believe that married men did not make for good soldiers (www.wikipedia.com), as opposed to bachelors with no families. Therefore he ordered that all young men remained single in an effort to expand his army and continue with the bloody and unpopular campaigns he was famous for (http://www.pictureframes.co.uk/pages/saint_valentine.htm). Father Valentine however refused to follow this order and began marrying young catholic men in secret.

In another variation of this story he is aided by Saint Marius in his secret marriage efforts (http://www.pictureframes.co.uk/pages/saint_valentine.htm). In that variation Father Valentine is captured and put before the Prefect of Rome who condemns him to death by clubbing and decapitation. He is killed on February 14th, 270.
In another variation after Father Valentine is arrested and jailed but has several meetings with Claudius and attempted to convert the Emperor to the Catholic faith. This did not sit well with the emperor and was sentenced to death. Before his death he fell in love with the blind daughter of his jailor and just before he was put to death he sent her a small card and signed it “From your Valentine” (www.wikipedia.com). Another story believed that while Father Valentine was imprisoned, people would leave him little notes, folded up and hidden in cracks in the rocks around his cell. He would find them and offer prayers for them.
One version starts back even further and believes that Valentine’s day comes from the Roman Pagan holiday’s to honor Juno the Queen of Women and Marriage (February 14th) and the Feast of Lupercalia (February 15th) (http://www.infoplease.com/spot/valentinesdayhistory.html). During these times little boys and girls had very little interaction. On the eve of the festival of Lupercalia the names of Roman girls were written on slips of paper and placed into jars. Each young man would draw a girl's name from the jar and would then be partners for the whole festival with the girl whom he chose. For many the pairing ended in eventual love and marriage. Because of this day Emperor Claudius chose to outlaw marriages and engagement. Then the story continues into one of the previously listed variations.
It should also be noted that despite its deeply historical backgrounds from the ages of the roman empire, according to www.wikipedia.com, there are those, especially in the United States that believe that Valentine’s day is nothing more than a “Hallmark Holiday” along with Secretary’s Day, and Father’s Day. This also stems from the fact that according to http://www.history.com/minisites/valentine/minisites/valentine/viewPage?pageId=884, they state that the Greeting Card Association believes an estimated billion valentine cards are sent each year, making Valentine's Day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year. (An estimated 2.6 billion cards are sent for Christmas).
While most websites take some interpretation and spin it one way or another major theme of Father Valentine and Emperor Claudius II’s decree outlawing marriage and the events that follow seem to be the most agreed upon information for the basis for the holiday.

Different Approachs to the Same Goal: History for the Masses

The impact of the internet on everyday society cannot be denied, especially in the research capacity of society worldwide. What was once locked away deep in the recesses of libraries and collected works scattered throughout the world available only to the most academic of minds, are now but a few key strokes and clicks away for the common man to peruse and gather information from. The manner in which this information is presented and displayed is just as varied. The websites of The Valley of the Shadow: Two Communities in the American Civil war, The History Channel, Do History, and The National Museum of American History’s website all take very different approaches in sharing the information they choose to focus on with the rest of the world, and depending on the manner in which the user is attempting to use the information can work for their benefit or their detriment.
The website for this National Museum of American history, while extremely pleasing visually and well designed graphically to the level that one would expect for such a prestigious institution lacks proper historical background information on some of the items displayed and special series they present. This is not necessarily a bad thing because not every single person who visits the website is looking for all of the historical information related to the items displayed and the special presentations the museum may have. It must be kept in mind that the website serves as an advertising tool to provide more information to potential visitors with more information about the museum and what’s inside of it. It can help visitors in planning their visit and basic information about what to know about the items they will see in the museum.
Do History however takes a much more intensive approach to a specific topic that the National Museum of American History did not. By using the entire website to focus solely on Martha Ballard the user has essentially all information possible from one site. This includes a variety of primary source documents, background information, books, films, and contact lists to facilitate the finding of additional research or asking questions. For any person searching for a wealth of information without the desire to have to travel to many sites and go through many links to find what they are looking for this is a wonderful site to use. This is an extremely academic oriented site and more has more than acceptable and trustworthy resources available right from the get-go.
This History Channel is a bit of a unique hybrid of the previously two mentioned sites because while it is visually pleasing, well designed for advertisement of an institution, it has a bit more historical information and background information on the topic it chooses to focus on. The site while primarily focusing on the advertisement of television shows broadcasted on The History Channel, and the tapes and DVD’s that go with them, it provides a strong amount of background information. While the commercial nature of the site might turn away the serious academic for fear of poor credibility in terms of sources of information used, the everyday user will find a wealth of the most interesting information presented in an exciting format that makes history come alive.
The Valley of the Shadow: Two Communities in the American Civil war website is more along the lines of a serious academic nature but is a lacks the layout and warmth that even Do History established. This site focuses on the very specific experiences of two counties before, during, and after the Civil War. This includes maps, letters, photos, records, and diary excerpts. In terms of specific content the site is far superior to any of the websites that were previously covered. It focuses solely on those two communities and goes into extreme depth them. It should also be noted that the creator of this site is an establish historian, hosted by the Virginia Center for Digital History who has equally impeccable credentials.
While like the internet in general these sites all have multiple purposes, but it should be recognized that not each site meets all of needs of every single person that might come across that site, which is an important fact to be kept in mind during website design. Each of these websites has their weak and strong points, all with different approaches to portray their message. It must be kept in mind that one is not necessarily better than the other but that each serves a specific purpose, while all of them keeping in the realm of making history more accessible to the masses.