Whether it’s a day of love and roses or resentment and dread, one can’t deny the rich history of Valentine’s Day. While parts of the day’s origin remain a mystery, we do know that February has, for centuries, been known as the month of love. The St. Valentine’s Day we are familiar with today has remnants of Christian and Ancient Roman traditions. The Catholic Church recognizes three saints named Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom were martyred, making the true root of Valentine’s Day even more disputed and unclear. Many historians also argue that rather than commemorating the anniversary of Valentine’s death, the St. Valentine’s Day feast was an effort to Christianize the pagan celebration of Lupercalia, a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, as well as Romulus, and Remus, two key Roman founders. While Lupercalia was outlawed because of its un-Christian ideas, many started to associate the day with love. During the Middle Ages, many in France and England thought that birds’ mating seasons began on February 14th, reinforcing that correlation between love and Valentine’s Day. Through the centuries, works of literature and folk tales have created the date we’ve come to know today.