This Valentine's Day marks the 70th anniversary of the movie Dracula 's release. The unspoken connection between blood, sex and the season of romance always existed, of course. For most of ancient Europe, mid-February marked the turning point of winter, when the cold began to ease and the first flowers began to push their shoots above the snow.
Domestic animals prepare to give birth.
The medieval legend that birds choose their mates on Valentine's Day reflects human observation of this behavior as much as it shows the saint's popularity. Sacred to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture and domestic animals, this holiday commemorated the adoption of Romulus and Remus by the she-wolf. In honor of the occasion, the priests of the Luperci sacrificed a goat and a dog. Young boys dipped thin strips of the slaughtered goat's hide into the sacrificial blood, then raced through streets and fields with their makeshift whips, lightly slapping women and crops to increase their fertility. Afterwards, unmarried women placed markers bearing their names in a large urn in the center of their village or town.