The Origin of  Valentine’s Day

There is a number of legends of how the holiday began. According to the most popular ones, Valentine’s Day is traced back to the Ancient Rome at the times of Emperor Claudius II.

Claudius made a bold decision to ban marriage, claiming that single men made better soldiers. However, a priest named Valentine continued to secretly marry couples, and eventually was imprisoned for disobeying the emperor. In jail, Valentine, being a hopeless romantic, fell in love with a young girl who regularly came to visit him. Right before he died, the priest wrote her a love letter, which is believed to be the first ever Valentine.

Valentine’s Day in Latin America

Over the centuries, the holiday has grown into a huge business in the United States and Europe, but seems to be a little more so in Latin America. In many countries, it seems to be more of an excuse to share love and friendship than candy and cards. It is even referred to as “Día del Amor y la Amistad” (Day of Love and Friendship) in many countries, including Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Mexico, and Puerto Rico. It is common to see people perform “acts of appreciation” for their friends. In Guatemala this tradition is known as the “Día del Cariño” (Affection Day). In Brazil (yes, we know they speak Portuguese there, but still), the Dia dos Namorados (lit. “Lovers’ Day”, or “Boyfriends’/Girlfriends’ Day”) is celebrated on June 12, probably because that is the day before Saint Anthony’s day, known there as the marriage saint, when traditionally many single women perform popular rituals, called simpatias, in order to find a good husband or boyfriend.

More Traditions From Different Countries

In Mexico, February 14th is celebrated as the “Día de San Valentin but is more commonly referred to as El Día del Amor y la Amistad, the day of love and friendship. While people also commonly give flowers, candies and balloons to their romantic partners, it is also a day to show appreciation for your friends. It is a time for people to show appreciation to the people they care about in general.

In Peru, locals celebrate by giving out orchids, native to the country, to each other. Carnaval is going on at the same time so it is considered a public holiday, and many celebrate with mass weddings to be able to accommodate large groups of couples.

Argentina & Chile refer to the day as El Día de Los Enamorados. There is more of an emphasis on spoiling your significant other with gifts compared to other Latin American countries. Colombia and Bolivia celebrate Valentine’s Day on September 20-21, when it popular to send gifts from secret admirers.“ Dominican Republic & El Salvador have a similar tradition when a game called Angelito or Amigo Secreto is played. Girls and boys rip a piece of paper, write someone’s name, and then proceed to give their angelito a gift. That’s a very cute Secret Santa variation, isn’t it?

Happy Valentine’s Day Amigos!

Unlike English, since last names are a little more complex in Spanish, the King of Spanish (fictitious character) who invented Spanish, produced a whole verb that goes along with last names which is “appellidarse”.

Now I will explain how last names work in Spanish. Everyone in Spanish has two last names: the first one is from their father (paternal), and the second is from their mother (maternal). Let’s say for example I was born into a Latin home and my “nombre de pila” was “Juan”, and my segundo nombre (middle name) was “Gabriel”. So this would make my name “Juan Gabriel…”. Next, if my father’s name was “Felipe Paco Garcia Lopez”, his paternal last name – “Garcia” would be included as my initial or paternal last name. I would now be known as “Juan Gabrial Garcia…”. Finally, if my mother’s name was “María Juana Fernandez Martinez”, I would take on her paternal last name – “Fernandez”, and add it on as my final last name. So finally, my official name would now be, “Juan Gabriel Garcia Fernandez”. Learn Spanish to increase your chances to have a last name like these.

In the above scenario, women generally don’t alter their last names when they get married; however, they sometimes add their husbands paternal last name after the word “de”. Take a look at the graphic (below) for an example of how this all works:

You may be wondering why they have or use two surnames in Spanish. To be perfectly honest, I’m not sure; if anyone knows, please enlighten us. However, it sure can make things a lot less confusing for some people. For example, there are three people found in my city named “David Clark”. One of them even has the same middle initial as me. People have confused us before, but if I used my mother’s maiden name after my last name, like they do in Spanish; it would help to eliminate the confusion.

One of the challenges Latin people have, when moving to countries like the United States, is how to address their last names. On most forms and official records, we only allow one surname. As a solution, some Latin families choose the father’s paternal surname as their “U.S.” surname, while others may hyphenate both of their surnames: “Garcia-Davila”.

Now, to wrap up our lessons on names, let’s look at the top 20 Spanish surnames, according to pdom.com/spanish_names.htm:
Rank Name Population
1 Garcia 744,000
2 Fernandez 503,000
3 Lopez 451,000
4 Martinez 433,000
5 Gonzalez 433,000
6 Rodriguez 432,000
7 Sanchez 405,000
8 Perez 404,000
9 Martin 247,000
10 Gomez 232,000
11 Ruiz 186,000
12 Diaz 171,000
13 Hernandez 160,000
14 Alvarez 159,000
15 Jimenez 154,000
16 Moreno 144,000
17 Munoz 123,000
18 Alonso 115,000
19 Romero 97,000
20 Navarro 90,000

Moral of the Story: Although figuring out Spanish surnames can appear to be confusing, once you get the hang of it, it’s not that bad – it’s just different. In some cases, like for me personally in the U.S., the extra last name would help to avoid confusion.

Sneak peek at next week: “The Cold-Fish and Forearm Handshakes”

¡Hasta luego! (“Until later!”)

David S. Clark — President / Director
U.S. Institute of Languages