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"You are the friend to whom my soul is attached as to its better half. You are dearer to me than language has the power of telling."
— Frances Burney, Evelina
Love is devotion. Love is a magical, almost indescribable thing — you feel it in your bones, hear it in the wind, and your heart simply knows that it's true. Valentine's Day commemorates that feeling. Not always in the most romantic way, perhaps, but the meaning behind the holiday is actually quite beautiful when you trace it back to its roots.
From St. Valentine himself to the greeting cards filling your local shop every February, the history of this holiday is rooted in chivalry, sacrifice, and something enduring: the human need to say I love you in a way that lasts.
The Legend of St. Valentine
Nobody is entirely certain how Valentine's Day began, but the most enduring theory traces it to a single act of defiance. In 270 A.D., a priest named Valentine was executed for his beliefs — and according to history, he had continued performing marriages in secret even after Emperor Claudius II banned them, believing that single men made better soldiers and forbidding young men from marrying.
Valentine refused to comply. He continued uniting couples in marriage and was put to death for it on the fourteenth of February. The holiday celebrated on that day each year is, at its core, a tribute to someone who believed that love was worth dying for.
The Festival of Lupercalia
Another theory reaches even further back — into the ancient Roman festival of Lupercalia, celebrated each February as a rite of purification and fertility. The festival was wild and celebratory, meant to ward off evil spirits and welcome the coming spring.
As part of the celebration, boys would draw the names of girls from a box and be paired together for the duration of the festival. Some historians believe this tradition of drawing names — a lottery of the heart — is where the custom of sending valentines first began to take shape.
"Love remains the same across centuries — and is still celebrated across many cultures today."
Esther Howland and the Valentine Card
By the 1800s, Valentine's Day had become a beloved holiday in France and England, celebrated with elaborate dinners, dances, and handwritten tokens of affection. When the tradition crossed the Atlantic, it found its great American champion in a young woman from Worcester, Massachusetts.
In 1847, Esther A. Howland received an English valentine and was so charmed by it that she began making her own — intricate cards decorated with lace, ribbons, and hand-painted colored paper. She turned a hobby into a business, eventually earning ten thousand dollars a year at a time when that was a staggering sum. The invention of the printing press made mass production possible, and the greeting card industry followed close behind.
Howland is now called the "Mother of the American Valentine." Without her, the holiday might have remained a quiet European tradition — instead, it became something the whole country celebrated.
Valentine's Day Now
Valentine's Day has since become a holiday of cards, teddy bears, chocolates, and flowers — some of it genuinely romantic, some of it gloriously commercial. Card companies and chocolatiers have built entire industries around the fourteenth of February, and the holiday has evolved far from its origins in martyrdom and Roman ritual.
But at its heart, Valentine's Day is still what we make of it. Whether that's adorning the one you love with something almost as beautiful as they are, presenting symbols to remember, or making promises yet to come — it is all, still, in the spirit of celebrating love.
"Valentine's Day is what we make of it — symbols to remember, and promises to come."
For us at Smith's Jewelers in Noblesville, Valentine's Day means finding time to step away from the world and spend it with your favorite person. It means embracing the small things and making them feel significant. And yes — it means celebrating a day of devotion with a gift that carries real meaning.
A beautiful piece of jewelry outlasts the chocolate. It outlasts the cards. It becomes the thing she reaches for every morning, or the one he never takes off. That's the kind of Valentine's Day gift worth giving.
Declare your love with something that lasts. Smith's Jewelers — beautiful, meaningful gifts from the heart.