Valentine's Day - How Love Found Its Date
Valentine’s Day feels firmly anchored in the calendar. Every year, February 14 returns with familiar expectations. Flowers, cards, dinners, and gestures that suggest this has always been love’s day. In reality, it has not.
The idea of Valentine’s Day as a celebration of romance is neither ancient nor universal. It is the result of a long cultural process shaped by religion, poetry, seasonal thinking, and social habit. Seen from a Nordic perspective, Valentine’s Day is not an inheritance. It is an adoption.
A historical background
The story begins not with love, but with a name. Valentine was a common Roman name, and early Christian sources mention several martyrs who carried it. The most frequently cited figure today is Valentine of Rome, described in later tradition as a priest executed in the third century. Stories claiming he secretly married couples despite imperial opposition appeared centuries later, and are now understood as legend rather than documented history. Other figures, including a bishop known as Valentine of Terni, were gradually folded into the same memory. The lack of a clear biography allowed the saint to absorb meaning over time.
By the early Middle Ages, February 14 was established as a minor feast day in Western church calendars. For centuries, it carried no romantic significance. That changed in the late fourteenth century, when poetry reshaped the day’s meaning.
In England, Geoffrey Chaucer wrote Parliament of Fowls, a poem that describes birds gathering on Saint Valentine’s Day to choose their mates. It is the earliest known text linking February 14 with romantic pairing. Medieval belief held that birds began mating in mid-February, and Chaucer’s poem gave literary authority to that idea. From there, the association spread. By the fifteenth century, Valentine’s Day had become part of aristocratic culture, marked by poems and handwritten notes exchanged between lovers.
Over time, love came to define the day more strongly than any of Saint Valentine’s other patronages, which included epilepsy, plague, and, in some regions, beekeeping. Love fit the season. Mid-February marked a turning point, when winter began to loosen its grip and the future could be imagined again.
Valentine's in the north
In the Nordic countries, however, Valentine’s Day has no deep historical roots. There is no evidence of medieval or early modern Danish, Norwegian, or Swedish traditions tied to February 14. In places like Denmark, the year was structured around Christmas, Easter, midsummer, and harvest. Love was not ritualised on a specific date. It was expressed through continuity rather than declaration.
One Nordic exception is Finland, where February 14 became known as Ystävänpäivä, or Friend’s Day, focused on friendship and social bonds rather than romance.
Valentine’s Day arrived in the Nordic region relatively late, gaining visibility in the late twentieth century through global popular culture. Even today, it remains optional, lightly ironic, and often downplayed.
Stripped of commercial excess, Valentine’s Day comes down to a simple idea. Choosing someone. And choosing them again. In the North, that choice is rarely announced loudly. It is shown quietly, over time.
No Valentine's without cocktails
Here are a few suggestions for cocktails to heat the moment. We try to avoid the clichés.