February 14 is a day for lovers young and old couples alike, filled with chocolate, cards, and those funny little messenger hearts.

Valentines Day has some interesting origins in both the Catholic and Pagan worlds. Roman Emperor Claudius II decided he did not want his young soldiers to be married, because of the belief that unwed men made better soldiers, so he banned them from getting married. But a Catholic priest by the name of Valentine continued to marry couples in secret until he was found out and made a martyr when he was stoned to death, in the name of marriage and love, thus becoming the saint of love, lovers, young couples and the married. Valentines Day is not only celebrated in February because it is the believed month of Valentine’s burial but also because the Roman fertility celebration Luperci takes place. During the celebration a lottery takes place to pair off single couples, the pairing often lead to marriages later in the year.

Blood sacrifices and martyrs aside, the other key symbol of Valentines Day is Cupid, the naked winged baby with a bow and quiver of arrows that flies around shooting people with his love arrows. Cupid is the son of Venus the roman goddess of love. Cupids name in Latin means Desirer (historychannel.com)

On the eve of Valentines Day in 1929, Al Capone sent a hit out on seven members of Bugs Moran North Siders. The next day the gang was lured into the trap by a call from a bootlegger who offered to sell them a truck load of whiskey at a low price. Moran was running late to the meeting and when he arrived he saw police getting out of unmarked cars, so he drove away. Little did he know that these were no cops but members of Capone’s gang. The men in side lined up against a wall and allowed themselves to be disarmed thinking they were under a normal raid when the members of Capone’s gang opened fire and killed all the men inside. The St Valentine’s Day Massacre was the bloodiest gangland killing Chicago had ever seen.

So remember as you’re snuggling up with your Tiggermittens for some good old fashion loving or digging into that wonderful box of yummy chocolates, Valentine days that have past, the people who where stoned to death in the name of love, the naked baby that might shoot you with a heart shaped arrow and the seven mobsters that where filled with machine gun fire over a few barrels of booze and a few city blocks of turf.

Have a happy loved filled Valentines Day everyone!