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May Day has been a day of celebration in Europe for centuries, if not longer. The festival most likely arose out of ancient rites asking gods for fertile crops and healthy livestock. In medieval and Renaissance Europe, laborers welcomed spring with a day of drinking and dancing. Today, May Day is a public holiday in more than 180 countries around the world. These facts cover both its ancient origins and more modern symbolism honoring workers.

The Scots Believed May Day Dew Had Mystical Powers

The Druids, the religious leaders of the ancient Celts, made fires on the hilltops to honor the sun at dawn on May 1 in a festival called Beltane. They sprinkled themselves with May Day dew, considered a kind of holy water that would bring health and good fortune.

Scots, mainly young women, kept part of this tradition alive, ascending the nearest hill around 4 a.m. on May 1 to wash their faces in May Day dew. The desired outcome? A lovely complexion. As late as 1968, some 2,000 people climbed up Arthur’s Seat, an ancient volcano in Edinburgh, for the rite: “The summit of the hill was crowded with people old and young, huddled together trying to keep warm in the crisp, clear morning air,” by one account. In more recent years, however, the numbers who brave the cold for the sake of beauty have dwindled.

Maypole Ribbon Dancing Began in Victorian Times

You may have seen modern-day versions of old May Day traditions, with a May Queen crowned and maypole dances. Nowadays, you’ll likely see dancers each holding a ribbon that is interwoven around the pole.

But May Day dancing didn’t always include ribbons. Medieval Celts stripped a tree and wrapped it in flowers on Beltane. In the ensuing British tradition, villagers danced around a tall tree or a pole, still decorated with flowers. The first known maypole dance featuring people holding ribbons appeared in an 1836 play at the Royal Victoria Theatre in London. Afterward, villages picked up the idea and created their own variations.

May Day Celebrations Were Controversial in the American Colonies

For the devout Pilgrims who came to the New World, debaucherous May Day celebrations were forbidden — which is a large part of why the holiday has never been celebrated in the U.S. as it is in Europe. Yet a small group of traders came over around the same time as the Puritans to make money, not to escape religious persecution. They settled near Plymouth in a camp called Merry Mount. For May Day 1628, they set up an 80-foot-tall pine maypole crowned with deer antlers. One man, Thomas Morton, brewed a barrel of beer and invited Indigenous young women to the celebration.

Scandalized, the colony’s Puritan governor, William Bradford, declared that Morton had “revived and celebrated the feasts of the Roman goddess Flora,” linked to “the beastly practices of the mad Bacchanalians.” He placed Morton in the stocks — a device restraining one’s legs or feet — and sent him home to England. Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote a short story about the event, declaring that “May, or her mirthful spirit, dwelt all the year round at Merry Mount.”

London Erupted in Riots on May Day

May Day hasn’t always been merry. In 1517, more than 1,000 angry Londoners rioted on what would be called “Evil May Day.” While the upper classes under King Henry VIII enjoyed luxuries like silks, spices, and oranges imported from abroad, poor Londoners felt that foreign workers were taking their work away. When city and royal officials charged nearly 300 Londoners with treason in the aftermath of the riots, the queen of Aragon begged her husband on her knees to show mercy. Nearly all of the people charged were pardoned.

May Day Commemorates the Haymarket Riot in Chicago

Nearly 400 years after “Evil May Day,” early May saw another worker protest that turned violent. It began with calls for a nationwide general strike (in support of an eight-hour workday), to occur on May 1, 1886. On May 3 in Chicago that year, police attacked and killed several picketing workers at a plant. At a protest meeting in Haymarket Square the following day, someone threw a bomb at the police, who opened fire; in the ensuing riot, seven police officers and four workers died. By August, eight men had been convicted for their supposed role in the bombing. Yet many considered them martyrs to the worker cause.  

To commemorate this occasion, in 1889 an international group of Socialist organizations and unions declared May 1 a day to support workers. The date became especially important in the former Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc, with major parades. May Day is still celebrated as International Workers’ Day, although in the U.S. workers and laborers are more likely to be honored on Labor Day.

The Finns Do It Up

The Finns observe Vappu from April 30 to May 1. The holiday honors St. Walpurga, and is also a celebration of the working class and students. Adults pull out their old white hats from high school graduation, wear costumes, and drink champagne or nonalcoholic mead while eating doughnuts at picnics in the parks. In Helsinki, the fun begins at 6 p.m. on April 30, when students gather at the Market Square to wash and put a white cap on the head of an Art Nouveau statue of a mermaid.

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On April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson trotted out to first base for the Dodgers at Brooklyn’s Ebbets Field, thereby erasing the color line that had kept Black players out of the top level of professional baseball for 63 years. While his success at opening the door for the great Black, Latino, and Asian players who followed is well known — and commemorated every April 15 by Major League Baseball — the achievement tends to overshadow other areas of his remarkable life. Here are six lesser-known facts about this American icon.

A Young Robinson Was Known for Getting Into Trouble

According to Arnold Rampersad’s Jackie Robinson: A Biography, the young Robinson ran with a group of troublemakers in his native Pasadena, California, known as the Pepper Street Gang, who shoplifted and got into fights. He was also once arrested for swimming in the city reservoir. Fortunately, the charismatic teen had enough guidance to avoid spoiling the opportunities his athletic gifts would bring. The responsible adults in his life included a Methodist minister, a local mechanic who organized events to keep kids off the streets, and Robinson’s mother, Mallie, who ran the home as a single mother with a firm but loving hand when not cleaning houses to support her five children.

Jackie Robinson Was the First Student-Athlete to Letter in Four Sports at UCLA

After rewriting the record books at Pasadena Junior College, Robinson continued to dazzle spectators as UCLA’s first four-sport letterman. One of the top football players in the country, he helped the Bruins to an undefeated season in 1939, and twice led the nation in punt-return yardage. Robinson also won the NCAA long-jump title in 1940 as part of the track-and-field squad, and twice topped the Pacific Coast Conference Southern Division in scoring as an undersized basketball star. Surprisingly, baseball was easily his worst sport in college, as Robinson hit just .097 in his lone season for the UCLA baseball team.

Jackie Robinson Was Court-Martialed After Refusing to Move to the Back of a Bus

About 11 years before Rosa Parks made history by refusing to budge from her seat, Second Lieutenant Robinson of Fort Hood, Texas, did the same while riding a military bus in July 1944. (Robinson had been drafted into the Army in April 1942.) The incensed driver summoned military police to settle the matter, and Robinson’s staunch insistence that he had done nothing wrong fueled additional charges of insubordination. Fortunately, the jury determined that he had acted appropriately throughout the incident, thanks in part to the shaky testimony of the prosecution’s witnesses, and Robinson was found not guilty of all charges the following month.

Jackie Robinson Starred in a Movie About Himself (in the Middle of His Career)

Following his successful entry into the major leagues, Robinson sought to capitalize on his fame with a book, 1948’s My Own Story, and a version adapted for the big screen, starring himself. However, the top Hollywood studios were loath to accept a project centered on the triumphant tale of a Black man; one allegedly wanted to add a part in which Robinson learns his exciting style of play from a white coach. The movie rights eventually went to the financially unstable Eagle-Lion Films, and while the untrained star was understandably a little stiff in his non-baseball-playing scenes, The Jackie Robinson Story (1950) proved popular enough with audiences to earn back five times its original investment.

Jackie Robinson Remained Engaged in Civil Rights After Retiring From Baseball

Although Robinson left baseball behind to become a vice president with the Chock full o’Nuts Corporation in 1957, he wasn’t content to simply sit in an executive suite as the battle for equality raged on. Along with authoring a syndicated column that gave him a prominent voice on social and political matters, the ex-athlete became a board member of the NAACP and frequently appeared alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at fundraising events and demonstrations. Additionally, Robinson sought to help out Black entrepreneurs as a founder of the Freedom National Bank of Harlem in 1964, and he later launched the Jackie Robinson Construction Company with an eye toward building housing for low-income communities.

Robinson’s Hall of Fame Plaque Initially Left Out His Integration of MLB

When Robinson earned baseball’s highest individual honor with induction into the Hall of Fame in 1962, his Hall of Fame plaque noted several batting and fielding statistics, but nothing about his role in breaking the color barrier. This apparently was at the behest of Robinson himself, who wanted to be judged by his qualifications as a ballplayer and not by any special racial designation. Nevertheless, this glaring omission was corrected in 2008, with the blessing of his wife and daughter, and his plaque inscription was amended to close with: “Displayed Tremendous Courage and Poise in 1947 When He Integrated the Modern Major Leagues in the Face of Intense Adversity.”

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April is a time of change. With the vernal equinox in the recent rearview mirror in the Northern Hemisphere, nature is slowly stirring from its months-long slumber, preparing to soon be in full bloom. April also has outsized importance compared to other months: The ancient Romans tied the month to the goddess Venus because of its beautiful and life-affirming effects, and for thousands of years the month was seen as the true beginning of the year. Today, April is full of moments of mischief, reverence, and a budding excitement for the warmer times ahead. These six facts explore the history of the month, and why it’s sometimes considered one of the best times of the year.

The Word April Comes From the Latin “Aperire,” Meaning “To Open”

When it comes to the names of months, April is a bit of an outlier. Other months are either intimately tied to Roman history and culture — whether named after Roman gods (January, March, June, etc.), rituals (February), or leaders (July and August) — or are related to Latin numbers (September to December). April, however, is simply derived from the Latin aperire, which means “to open.” This is likely a reference to the beginning of spring, when flowers “open” as the weather warms.

Although April’s name isn’t etymologically tied to Roman culture, April (or Aprilis, as the Romans called it) was a month dedicated to the goddess Venus, known as Aphrodite in the ancient Greek pantheon. On the first day of April, Romans celebrated a festival known as Veneralia in honor of the goddess of love, beauty, and fertility. This has led some scholars to wonder if the month’s name was actually Aphrilis in reference to the goddess.

The Anglo-Saxons Called It “Ēosturmōnaþ” — the Root of “Easter”

One of the most important holidays in April (and occasionally March) is the celebration of Easter, which marks the death and resurrection of Jesus. Much like Christmas, this holiday has pagan origins, and its name is derived from the Anglo-Saxon term for the month, “Ēosturmōnaþ.” That name literally meant “Ēostre’s month,” a reference to the West Germanic spring goddess of the same name. The only known historical text mentioning Ēostre comes from the Venerable Bede, a Christian monk who lived in the eighth century CE and who mentions the goddess (and the festivals dedicated in her name) in his work The Reckoning of Time. Because so little evidence of Ēostre exists, some wonder if the goddess was a complete invention of Bede’s, but whether she was real or not, Ēostre remains the namesake of April’s holiest days for Christians.

April Used To Be the Second Month of the Year

You know how September, October, November, and December mean the seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth month, respectively? (If you didn’t, you do now.) There was a time when those names actually made sense, and that time was around the eighth century BCE in ancient Rome, when legend says the 10-month Roman calendar was created by Romulus — the mythical founder of Rome.

Romulus’ calendar began in the month of March (Romulus himself was said to be the son of the Roman god Mars), making April the second month of the year. But Romulus’ calendar had many shortcomings (chief among them being that it was about 60 days too short), so around the eighth century BCE, legendary Roman king Numa Pompilius decided to create two new months, known today as January and February. By at least 450 BCE, both had moved to the start of the year, and April has been the fourth month of the year ever since.

The “April Showers” Saying Dates Back to 16th-Century England

The surprisingly resilient phrase “April showers bring May flowers” first appeared in English poet Thomas Tusser’s 1557 work A Hundreth Good Pointes of Husbandrie, which contained both poetry and practical advice. The book was widely read throughout England, and scholars believe it was possibly the most popular book of poetry during the Elizabethan era. In the book, Tusser writes, “Swéete April showers, Doo spring Maie flowers.” Of course the validity of such a phrase is very much dependent on where you live. In the U.S., for example, April is only the fifth-wettest month on average, with June often being the wettest overall. Today, the phrase is often seen as less of an indictment of April’s proclivity for wetness and more of a statement on the value of patience and persistence.

The Oldest Recorded Meteor Shower Occurs in April

Occurring between April 16 and 25 (and peaking on April 22), the Lyrids are the oldest recorded meteor shower still visible in the night sky today. Chinese astronomers recorded a Lyrids meteor shower back in 687 BCE, and 10 to 20 meteors can be seen per hour during the shower’s peak. The Lyrids are named after the constellation Lyra, which is where the meteors seem to streak from in the night sky. However, these meteors don’t actually come from that region of space; they’re the result of the Earth crossing the debris-strewn path of comet C/1861 G1 Thatcher, which was named after its discoverer A. E. Thatcher. Although people down south can glimpse a few meteors, the best meteoric displays are reserved for the Northern Hemisphere.

We’ll Likely Never Know the Origin of April Fools’ Day

One of the oddest annual traditions on the modern calendar falls on the first day of April, otherwise known as April Fools’ Day. Once a day reserved for harmless pranks pulled on friends and family, April Fools’ Day now reaches into the furthest depths of the internet, with multimillion-dollar brands and corporations getting in on the fun. Although the tradition is certainly an oddity, it’s stranger still that no one is exactly sure where April Fools’ Day comes from. Some historians think when France moved to the Gregorian calendar in the 16th century, those who still celebrated the new year in April (having not gotten the memo, wilfully or otherwise, about the calendar change) were labeled “April fools.” Others have tied the tradition to an ancient Roman festival called Hilaria, which took place in late March, along with many more theories. A more modern version of April Fools’ Day took root in 18th-century Britain before evolving into the mischief holiday we know today.

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On April Fools’ Day, it’s hard to separate fact from fiction, as mischievous pranksters pull lighthearted gags around the world. On some occasions throughout history, April Fools’ pranks have even blossomed into ruses that fooled hundreds, if not thousands, of people. Whether it’s corporations, magazines, or broadcasting networks getting in on the fun, here are six famous and funny April Fools’ Day pranks.

The Spaghetti Tree

On April Fools’ Day 1957, the BBC informed viewers in England that there was a purported “spaghetti farm” in Switzerland where pasta grew on trees. The network aired a fabricated video featuring Swiss women harvesting spaghetti from an orchard, narrated by war correspondent Richard Dimbleby — a veteran broadcaster known for his straightforward demeanor, which only added to the prank’s believability. In his narration, Dimbleby noted that the annual harvest was expected to be particularly bountiful thanks to the eradication of the “spaghetti weevil,” which was considered to be the plant’s main predator.

At the time, many Brits were unfamiliar with Italian food, and hundreds of viewers called the BBC asking how they could grow spaghetti-producing plants of their own. In response, phone operators instructed the gullible callers to “place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best.” The prank proved to be so believable that it even fooled BBC staff members, including the network’s general director, who researched the purported farm utilizing several independent sources before concluding that it was all a ruse.

Sidd Finch, the Flamethrowing Baseball Prospect

In 1985, the sports world was abuzz about a newly discovered pitching prospect for the New York Mets, named Hayden “Sidd” Finch. Finch was the focus of a lengthy Sports Illustrated magazine profile written by George Plimpton, though there was a catch. The article ran on April 1, 1985, and it was entirely fabricated.

Plimpton’s article introduced the nation to a “pitcher, part yogi and part recluse,” nicknamed after Siddhartha Gautama, aka Buddha. Finch’s shocking scouting report claimed that Sidd was capable of throwing a baseball 168 miles per hour, and was also pretty good at playing the French horn. The article was made more believable with quotes from well-known Mets players and coaches, as well as a detailed series of photos showing Finch in full uniform playing his French horn by the seaside and wearing only one shoe on the pitcher’s mound. In reality, photographer Lane Stewart had recruited a friend, Joe Berton, to stand in as Finch for the piece. Berton attended Mets’ Spring Training posing as Finch, interacting with other players and signing autographs for fans who were none the wiser.

Richard Nixon’s 1992 Presidential Campaign

If you were listening to NPR’s Talk of the Nation program on April 1, 1992, then you likely heard the shock of a lifetime. During that episode, disgraced former U.S. President Richard Nixon — who had resigned the presidency in 1974 — announced that he would seek the office in the 1992 election. Listeners were understandably confused, and called in to profess their opposition to the unexpected Nixon campaign. Later, though, they came to realize it was all a prank.

The ruse was concocted by NPR’s John Hockenberry, who had teamed up with political impersonator Rich Little. Little took to the airwaves doing his best Richard Nixon voice to announce his new campaign slogan: “I never did anything wrong, and I won’t do it again.” Given that Nixon had already been elected President twice, he was ineligible to run again, but that didn’t stop mayhem from ensuing before NPR copped to the prank after a few minutes of fun.

The Taco Liberty Bell

On April 1, 1996, the fast-food chain Taco Bell announced that they had acquired one of America’s most historic relics, the Liberty Bell. Taco Bell went all out by purchasing full-page advertisements in seven major local newspapers, including the Philadelphia Inquirer. In those ads, the fast-food chain announced that they had not only bought the Liberty Bell but officially renamed it “The Taco Liberty Bell.” Furthermore, they claimed that they had cut a deal with the government through which the purchase of the landmark would help the country to pay off the national debt.

The prank resulted in furious Americans calling the National Park Service to express their outrage. Despite public backlash, White House press secretary Mike McCurry joined in on the fun, jokingly announcing, “Ford Motor Company is joining today in an effort to refurbish the Lincoln Memorial. … It will be the Lincoln Mercury Memorial.” Joking aside, the gag was no small financial commitment for Taco Bell, as the advertisements cost $300,000 — though the whole prank ultimately generated around $25 million in ads, and sales spiked by $600,000 the next day.

Alex Trebek and Pat Sajak Switch Places

In 1997, game show viewers were understandably thrown off when Alex Trebek, the host of Jeopardy!, switched places with Pat Sajak, the host of Wheel of Fortune. On that evening’s Jeopardy! broadcast, Sajak emerged from behind the curtain to host a traditional episode of the show. Despite the Jeopardy! broadcast’s relative normalcy, it was on Wheel of Fortune where things got particularly wacky.

After Trebek showed up to the mild confusion of the Wheel of Fortune audience, he welcomed Lesly Sajak, Pat’s wife, to assist with flipping numbers. Furthermore, there were no normal contestants that night. Instead, Pat Sajak and his usual co-host Vanna White played for charity that evening. Sajak and White were tasked with solving humorous phrases such as “PAT I’D LIKE TO SOLVE THE PUZZLE” and really long words such as “SUPERCALIFRAGILISTICEXPIALIDOCIOUS.” In 2022, two more television staples followed in their footsteps, as Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel switched up hosting duties for their respective late-night comedy shows on April Fools’ Day.

Google Gulp

Many of us have a thirst for knowledge, but Google once bottled that desire inside a seemingly tangible yet entirely fictitious product. On April Fools’ Day 2005, the tech giant unveiled the beta-version of Google Gulp, a soft drink jam-packed with Google’s “Auto-Drink” technology. Google claimed that the drinks were meant to increase each drinker’s cognitive ability, because the beverage had “a DNA scanner embedded in the lip of [the] bottle reading all 3 gigabytes of your base pair genetic data in a fraction of a second… to achieve maximum optimization of your soon-to-be-grateful cerebral cortex.” However, Google made the beverage hard to come by, stating that the only way to get a new bottle was to turn in an already used Gulp Cap — none of which existed, of course.

Google Gulp was just one in a long line of memorable pranks from the company. In 2013, they “unveiled” Google Nose, allowing users to smell what they were searching for. In 2018, Google hid the character Waldo on Google Maps, and the following year they added the mobile game “Snake” to that very same service. Funnily enough, one of Google’s most beloved products, Gmail, was launched on April 1, 2004. The email service seemed too good to be true at first and led many people to believe it was a hoax, before users ultimately realized it was a very real product.

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As mid-March approaches, you’ll no doubt hear the oft-repeated saying “Beware the ides of March.” It’s a strangely archaic phrase that doesn’t make much sense to modern ears without knowing some important historical context, as well as the ins and outs of ancient moon-based calendars  — what are “ides,” anyway? Here are six amazing facts about this famous phrase, and its relation to arguably one of the most important moments in Western history.

The Phrase Comes From William Shakespeare

In Act 1, Scene 2 of William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, Roman politician (and future assassin) Marcus Junius Brutus and the play’s eponymous character are approached through a crowd by a soothsayer who has a warning — “Beware the ides of March.” The two Romans dismiss the fortuneteller as a “dreamer” and go about their business as usual. Of course, the warning proved deadly accurate; for the Romans, the “ides” was the middle of the month, and Julius Caesar was famously assassinated on March 15, 44 BCE.

Roman historians say that in reality (not just Shakespeare’s fictionalized version), the soothsayer’s name was Spurinna. He was Etruscan, an ancient people often associated with divination, and served as a haruspex — someone who inspects the entrails of sacrificed animals for clues about the future. However, there’s no record of Spurinna pinpointing the ides of March specifically; instead, he warned Caesar to be wary of the next month generally, a period that would end on March 15. Scholars believe this was likely just a calculated guess, as Roman politicians were already turning against Caesar, who had been named dictator for life, and the famed military leader was leaving the capital for another military campaign on March 18. If Caesar was going to be assassinated, it would likely be in the month of March.

The “Ides” Were Part of Rome’s Archaic Lunar Calendar

Although the phrase “the ides of March” carries with it a sinister connotation because of the bloody business done on that day two millennia ago, the ides — along with the nones and kalends — are simply ancient markers of the moon’s phases that were part of Rome’s lunar calendar. “Kalends” referred to the new moon (or first of the month), “ides” meant the middle of the month (the 13th in some months and the 15th in others), and “nones” referred to the quarter moon. For a time, the ides of March was actually the beginning of the new year in Rome.

Caesar Himself Got Rid of Ides Entirely

Although the ides of March is closely related to Julius Caesar, the famous Roman leader was directly responsible for tossing out the old, lunar-based calendar entirely. In 45 BCE, Caesar — after consulting top mathematicians and astronomers — instituted the solar-based Julian calendar, a timekeeping system remarkably similar to the calendar we use today.

To implement the new system, Caesar created what has since become known as “the year of confusion,” in which the year 46 BCE lasted for 445 days so the new Julian calendar could begin on January 1. One scholar even argues that this drastic change could’ve been seen by conspiratorial senators as an attack on Roman tradition, and the assassins might’ve purposefully selected the “ides of March” as a symbolic gesture against Caesar and his reforms.

Every Year Romans Reenact Caesar’s Assassination on March 15

Every year (barring worldwide pandemics) Romans reenact the murderous drama that unfolded near the Curia of Pompey two millennia ago. (A curia is a structure where Roman senate members would meet.) However, it wasn’t until 2015 when members of the Roman Historical Group got the chance to recreate Caesar’s final moments on the exact spot where it happened, after finally getting access to the ruins of the curia itself.

The reenactment generally unfolds in three parts — first with the senators’ accusations, followed by Caesar’s actual assassination, and then concluding with speeches from both Brutus and Mark Antony justifying their actions. In an interview with NBC News, the Caesar impersonator said this annual bit of theater is about honoring the ancient leader, because “Rome wouldn’t have been as great without him.”

Caesar Was Deified as a Roman God

Although the Roman pantheon was largely borrowed from ancient Greece, Rome added a few deified originals of its own. One of the most important was the two-headed Janus, the god of doorways and transitions and the namesake of the month of January. But Rome also deified many of its most important leaders, and named months after some of them. After Caesar’s death on the ides of March, a Roman cult known as divus Julius pushed for Caesar’s official divinity. Caesar’s adopted heir, Octavian (known to history as Augustus), later became Rome’s first emperor and similarly received the divinity treatment. The effects of this Roman imperial cult can be seen in today’s calendar, as July and August are named for the two ancient rulers.

The Location of Caesar’s Murder Is Now a Cat Sanctuary

The Curia of Pompey used to be home to the hustle and bustle of toga-wearing senators going about the business of empire, but it’s now the domain of cats. First excavated during the reign of Benito Mussolini in 1929, the Largo di Torre Argentina houses the remains of the curia where Caesar met his end, as well as the ruins of several temples. However, today the Colonia Felina di Torre Argentina takes care of more than 100 cats that prowl the ancient grounds. Although visitors can glimpse the ruins from street level some 20 feet above ground, only cats are usually allowed to slink among the grounds where the ides of March earned its infamous reputation.

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Who was St. Valentine? Although we don’t know for sure, we do know he wasn’t a patron of romantic love. St. Valentine’s Day was originally an occasion honoring one of several Christian martyrs. It took centuries before the day was linked to love — and even longer before anyone dreamed up a heart-shaped box of chocolate.

Historians Don’t Know for Sure Who St. Valentine Was

The history we have comes from the Bollandists, an order of Belgian Jesuit monks who began publishing an encyclopedic text called the Acta Sanctorum in 1643. They searched archives to document the lives of past saints, organizing their research as part of a calendar that associates each day with a saint. For February 14, they listed several martyrs called “Valentini.”

The Bollandists uncovered tales of two Christians who were decapitated on February 14 during the reign of the Roman Emperor Claudius Gothicus in the third century. One legend concerns a Roman priest named Valentinus, and the other a bishop of Terni in the province of Umbria, Italy. As the Bollandists note, it’s likely the two tales actually refer to the same person. There’s also a legend that a St. Valentine performed illegal marriages for the emperor’s soldiers, but no real evidence to back it up.

Churches and Monasteries Say They Have Bits of St. Valentine’s Body

An entire skull purported to be St. Valentine’s is still on display in one church, Santa Maria in Cosmedin in Rome. Churches in Madrid, Dublin, Prague, Malta, Birmingham, Glasgow, and the Greek isle of Lesbos have also claimed to have a bit of the saint’s skull, or other relics (including his heart) that once belonged to his body.

Relics of martyrs allow Christians to experience a sense that these great souls are still in their community, according to Lisa Bitel, a historian of medieval Europe and religious studies at the University of Southern California. But these bones did not (and don’t) have a special significance for lovers.

Rome Had a Raucous Fertility Festival in Mid-February

The pagan festival of Lupercalia began as a rural ritual of sacrificing goats and dogs. It turned into an urban carnival in Rome, with young men running through the streets whipping onlookers with strips of new goat leather. Romans believed this whipping brought luck to pregnant women.

Around 496 CE, a new pope abolished the festival, which had lasted despite a long series of laws over the previous 150 years banning pagan religious rites. He also declared February 14 to be a celebration of St. Valentine. However, Bitel argues that “there is no evidence that the pope purposely replaced Lupercalia with the more sedate cult of the martyred St. Valentine.”

The Link to Love Came in Literature

So how did Valentine’s Day become associated with romance? You can thank (or blame) famed English poet Geoffrey Chaucer, whose 14th-century poem “Parliament of Fowls” describes a group of birds gathering on “seynt valentynes day” to select their mates.

Within a few decades, fashionable people had begun sending love notes and, soon, original poems, to their sweethearts on the saint’s day. By 1415, a French duke imprisoned in the Tower of London called his wife his sweet Valentine. Nearly 200 years after that, Shakespeare had Ophelia sing a song based on the folkloric idea that the first girl a man saw on Valentine’s Day would be his true love. By the sentimental Victorian era, Valentine’s Day had become a time to shower each other with cards and gifts, decorated with hearts, rosebuds, and baby Cupids symbolizing romance.

Cupid Was Originally a Hunk

The chubby winged child we often see today first appeared in art and poetry as a handsome youth — the Greek god of love, Eros. Sometimes considered the son of the god of war, Eros caused lots of trouble.

The Romans were the ones who reimagined him as Cupid, the son of Venus (goddess of love and beauty; known in ancient Greece as Aphrodite). The enchanted gold-tipped arrows of his bow, bringing love and lust, were said to pierce both humans and gods alike. Picturing him as a child was a way of  “limiting the power that love was thought to have over us,” says Catherine Connors, a classics professor at the University of Washington.

Chocolate hadn’t yet entered the picture, though.

Valentine’s Chocolates Arrived in the 19th Century

Chocolate did have an early link to marriage. The ancient Maya, who first brewed cacao beans, used their unsweetened drink in marriage ceremonies. Sweet chocolates for Valentine’s Day began just as you’d guess — as a way to sell chocolate.

Candymaker Richard Cadbury saw a marketing opportunity in the mid-19th century. His company had developed a manufacturing process that made drinking chocolate tastier. It produced leftover cocoa butter, which he used for bonbons, then called “eating chocolate.” Cadbury himself designed gorgeous boxes to put them in. Later, he put the symbolic Cupids and roses on a heart-shaped box, and a tradition was born.  

In the United States, Russell Stover and Whitman’s brought Valentine’s chocolates within reach for millions. Russell Stover bought out Whitman’s, and they now sell the “Secret Lace Heart,” chocolates that come in a heart-shaped box covered with red satin and black lace reminiscent of lingerie.