This "lovers' holiday" is an anomaly. It was actually an effort by the Catholic Church to keep teenagers from becoming lovers.

Before Christ was born, it was a Roman tradition for teenage girls and boys to gather every February in the name of the god Lupercus, and randomly select a "mate" for a year. They were permitted to do anything they liked together (and what else would teenagers do?).

When Christians gained power in the Roman Empire, they wanted to bring this practice to an end. So they selected a substitute for Lupercus (to be the focus of a parallel holiday)--St. Valentine, a bishop that had reputedly been tortured and executed by Emporer Claudius II in 270 A.D., for performing marriages after Claudius had outlawed them in the Empire. This symbol of more "wholesome" love was reluctantly accepted by the Romans. But just to be sure no one gave in to temptation, the Catholic Church made it a mortal sin to worship Lupercus. Eventually, Valentine's Day became a recognized holiday throughout Western Europe.

If teens couldn't get together in February, what could they do? They could send each other respectful notes of affection. And they did, although it seems like a poor substitute. At any rate, sending lover's greetings became a part of the Valentine's day ritual, and when Christian influence grew, the practice of sending notes on February 14 spread with it.

The first greeting cards didn't appear until the 18th century. Printed cards were common in Germany by the 1780's; they were called Freundschaftkarten, or "friendship cards." The first American cards were manufactured in the 1870's, at an amazing cost of up to thirty-five dollars apiece.

In the spirit of Valentine's Day (sort of), here are a few public marriage proposals gone wrong. Very, very wrong. I think maybe the theme is that these were all on Valentine's Day. Poor guys.