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[[File:Valentine's Day Cake.jpg|240px|right|thumbnail|Saint Valentine's Day cake.]]
Observed on February 14, '''Saint Valentine's Day''' (typically referred to as merely Valentine's Day due in large part to [[atheist]] [[secularization]], but also by those who do not recognize the Anglican/Catholic/Orthodox practice of sainthood) is a widely celebrated holiday characterized by showing one's love for someone. In [[Wales]], Saint Dwynwen's Day is the equivalent and it is celebrated on January 25.

Saint Valentine's Day has become increasingly commercialized in recent years (it is among the most popular days on which weddings are held, and reservations at finer restaurants often require considerable advance notice due to popularity), which is somewhat ironic given its origin:

:Roman Emperor Claudius II defended the [[Roman Empire|Empire]] against invading [[Goths]] in the 3rd century.  He forbade marriage for his troops because he thought that single men were tougher soldiers. 

:[[St. Valentine|Valentine]] was a [[Christian]] bishop in Italy who secretly married young couples.  When caught, he was sentenced to be beaten to death with clubs and beheaded on February 14, A.D. 269 

:'''''But as he awaited his execution, this [[Christian]] prayed for the jailer's sick daughter and wrote her a note.  He signed it "from your Valentine."  She miraculously recovered and, in A.D. 469, Pope Gelasius designated February 14th as "Saint Valentine's Day."'''''

In [[Saudi Arabia]], Saint Valentine's Day is banned.<ref>https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/31382332</ref>
==  British study finds atheists and scientists to be the least enthusiastic about Valentine's Day ==

''See also:'' [[Atheism and romance]] and [[Atheism and love]]

An study done by the British website Freedating.co.uk reported about attitudes regarding Valentine's Day:
{{Cquote|Both [[Conservative Party|Tory]] and [[Labour Party|Labour]] voters are about as unromantic as you can get, beaten only by atheists and scientists... 

So says our latest survey, which looked our users' attitudes to Valentine's Day - 6,878 of them in all.

We asked them to rate how important they thought the most romantic day of the year was, and combined their answer with anonymised data from their dating profiles.

Our statistician crunched the numbers, and pulled out any links between the kind of information you find in a typical dating profile, and whether or not those people were enthusiastic fans of Valentine's Day.

- Women overall are significantly more enthusiastic than men, nearly 10% so.

- A strong interest in any political party, other than the Liberal Democrats, is linked to a decreasing interest in this international day of romance.

- Whether or not men are religious is highly polarizing, with Christians and Catholics being amongst the most positive, and Atheists and Agnostics being amongst the most negative.<ref>[https://www.freedating.co.uk/politics-of-valentines.html The Politics of Valentine's Day: Survey reveals differing attitudes to Valentine's Day, based on political persuasion]</ref>}}

==See also==
* [[Saint Valentine]]

==References==
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[[Category:Holidays]]