A potted history of St Valentine's Day

Valentine’s Day originated as a Christian feast day honoring one or two early Christian martyrs named Saint Valentine. Through later folk traditions, it has become a significant cultural, religious, and commercial celebration of romance and love in many regions of the world ( – and a quick note to the disorganised men out there – you better get out there and buy cards, flowers, chocolates or book a table in an upmarket restaurant if you want to stay in her good books).

There are a number of martyrdom stories associated with various Valentines connected to February 14, including an account of the imprisonment of Saint Valentine of Rome for ministering to Christians persecuted under the Roman Empire in the third century. According to an early tradition, Saint Valentine restored sight to the blind daughter of his jailer. Numerous later additions to the legend have better related it to the theme of love: an 18th-century embellishment to the legend claims he wrote the jailer's daughter a letter signed "Your Valentine" as a farewell before his execution; another tradition posits that Saint Valentine performed weddings for Christian soldiers who were forbidden to marry.

The 8th century Gelasian Sacramentary recorded the celebration of the Feast of Saint Valentine on February 14.

The day became associated with romantic love in the 14th and 15th centuries when notions of courtly love flourished, apparently by association with the "lovebirds" of early spring. In 18th-century England, it grew into an occasion in which couples expressed their love for each other by presenting flowers, offering confectionery, and sending greeting cards, known as "valentines".

In 1797, a British publisher issued The Young Man's Valentine Writer, which contained scores of suggested sentimental verses for the young lover unable to compose his own. Printers had already begun producing a limited number of cards with verses and sketches, called "mechanical valentines." Paper Valentines became so popular in England in the early 19th century that they were assembled in factories. Fancy Valentines were made with real lace and ribbons, with paper lace introduced in the mid-19th century.

In 1835, 60,000 Valentine cards were sent by post in the United Kingdom, despite postage being expensive.

Since the 19th century, handwritten notes have given way to mass-produced greeting cards. In the UK, just under half of the population spend money on their Valentines, and around £1.9 billion was spent in 2015 on cards, flowers, chocolates and other gifts.

The rise of Internet popularity at the turn of the millennium is creating new traditions. Millions of people use, every year, digital means of creating and sending Valentine's Day greeting messages such as e-cards, love coupons or printable greeting cards. Valentine's Day is considered by some to be a Hallmark, stupidly commercial feast day due the immense pressure to spend on your beloved; maybe this is a curmudgeonly view, but having to buy romantic tat just because everyone else is following the stipulated convention doesn’t smack of spontaneous, unalloyed romantic love.

In the UK, just under half of the population spends money on their Valentines and around £1.3 billion is spent yearly on cards, flowers, chocolates, and other gifts, with an estimated 25 million cards being sent.