The lover's holiday has its beginnings in the 4th century
B.C. in Rome. The Romans held an annual lottery wherein
young men would draw a young woman's name from a box. The
couple would be assigned to each other the entire year for
entertainment and pleasure. This celebration, traditionally
held on February 15, also included banquets, dancing and
foot races run in the nude.

Around A.D. 496, early church fathers sought an end to the
pagan practice, but knew better than to upset the citizens
by removing the lottery completely. Instead, they had
teenagers pull the names of saints from the box. The teen
was supposed to spend the year emulating that saint's life
as much as possible, which was probably not as much fun as
naked marathons. St. Valentine was chosen as the patron
saint of the new event, and young Roman men resorted to
courting females by sending handwritten notes delivered on
February 14.

Isn't that interesting ?