The Dark Origins of Valentine’s Day Muslims Might Be Unaware Of

Celebrating Valentine’s Day was strictly forbidden in Saudi Arabia for a long time, up until five years ago:

The change came after Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Mohammad bin Salman stripped the nation’s Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, a department once charged with enforcing strict religious norms, of many of its powers in 2016.

Before that, people who dared to celebrate the holiday were often arrested, and shop owners were prevented from selling Valentine’s Day goods.

And as much as this was just one of many moves employed to liberalize an Islamic society, they actually tried to justify this change to make it seem more appealing. Here is a statement from Ahmed Qasim Al-Ghamdi, the former president of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice in Makkah:

“All these are common social matters shared by humanity and are not religious issues that require the existence of a religious proof to permit it,” he said.

Describing love as a natural feeling, the cleric said that Valentine’s Day celebrated “a positive aspect of the human being.”

Is this claim true? Is this really not a religious matter and does this event really pertain to a positive aspect of the human being?

For this we need to look at the history of Valentine’s Day, which historians agree are the mashed versions of two separate historical events, one involving a Christian priest, and the other about the pagan festival of Lupercalia. This article will focus on the latter:

Unlike Valentine’s Day, however, Lupercalia was a bloody, violent and sexually charged celebration awash with animal sacrifice, random matchmaking and coupling in the hopes of warding off evil spirits and infertility.

This vile festival was celebrated annually on February 15, just one day after the modern day Valentine’s Day is. It was originally known as Februa, which means “Purifications” or “Purgings,” which is the basis for the name of the month February.

It would begin by a bunch of Roman priests called Luperci gathering in a specific place, for example in the cave of Lupercal. These Luperci would then sacrifice a goat and dog, obviously in the name of their own false deities. The sacrifice of the goat was supposed to symbolize fertility.

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Using the blood-stained knife that was used to sacrifice these animals, the foreheads of two young naked Luperci would then be smeared with blood. It’s this red blood that is the symbolic origin of the color that Valentine’s Day is now popularly associated with. The blood would then be wiped off using wool soaked in milk. And all the while, these Luperci would laugh maniacally.

The goat’s hide would be cut up into strips called thongs. Using these thongs, the Luperci would then wildly run around town, whipping any and all women that were encountered. This was, again, meant as a symbol of fertility. It’s believed that these women would welcome this whipping in hopes of becoming fertile. However, there are historical accounts that this part of the ritual wouldn’t always be so consensual:

Hopkins claims that a mosaic featuring a Lupercalia celebration features “two men forcibly holding a naked woman face upwards, while a third man, half naked, whips her thighs … The men’s drunken hilarity is matched by the beaten woman’s obvious pain.”

The ‘romantic’ ritual would end with young men and women pairing up. In other words, this was a night of fornication.

What a messed up ritual that is the source of the event that people now celebrate globally, including some Muslims.

The merging of this festival with the story of Saint Valentine, which many people nowadays think is the primary origin of this occasion, was most likely a move by the Catholic Church to make Christianity more appealing to pagans, just like how the pagan festival of Saturnalia was merged with the birth of Jesus Christ into the formation of Christmas.

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This echoes of how many Compassionate Imams these days sugar coat and cherry pick Islam in order to make it more palatable for the kuffar, a move meant to induce acceptance of Muslims by these disbelievers. What they don’t understand is that this only leads to the distortion of Islam:

Never will the Jews or Christians be pleased with you, until you follow their faith. Say, “Allah’s guidance is the only ˹true˺ guidance.” And if you were to follow their desires after ˹all˺ the knowledge that has come to you, there would be none to protect or help you against Allah. (Quran 2:120)

Imagine such a disgusting ritual being described as ‘a positive aspect of the human being’. After learning the dark pagan history of Valentine’s Day, I pray that we will abstain from celebrating it and follow the advice of our Prophet ﷺ:

Ibn ’Umar (RAA) narrated that the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said:

“He who imitates any people (in their actions) is considered to be one of them.” Related by Abu Dawud and Ibn Hibban graded it as Sahih.

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