Is it a time for romance?

Or just a way for companies to sell flowers and cards?

Listen, we can't tell you if that special someone loves you or loves you not.

This is just a video asking you to watch it.

It's the seven things you didn't know about Valentine's Day.

In ancient Roman times,

Valentine was a very popular name and there are several stories of St. Valentinian martyrdom.

According to one tradition,

the Roman Emperor Claudius II declared that Roman soldiers were not allowed to marry and then made weddings illegal.

A Christian priest named Valentine found this to be quite a buzzkill and continued to perform marriages in secret.

According to another story, a different Valentine was imprisoned for helping Christians and fell in love with the jailer's daughter.

He signed his final letter to her, "Love, your Valentine."

Apparently, they were both beheaded on February 14th.

Some say the church scheduled the Feast of Saint Valentine during the pagan festival of Lupercalia in an attempt to Christianize the sexy holiday,

which included spanking women with goatskin to promote fertility in the coming year.

However, the most direct descendant of our modern Valentine's Day that's associated with love and romance is from English poet Geoffrey Chaucer.

In 1375, he wrote "Parliament of Fowls," which contained the line,

"For this was on St. Valentine's Day, when every bird comes there to choose his mate."

Inspired, the nobles of the 1400s began writing poems to their love interests as valentines,

a brutal practice at the time, because it would take weeks to know if they'd been ghosted.

Although you may recognize them more from their eggs during Easter,

give the Cadbury chocolate company a rose for creating the match made in heaven, V-Day and chocolate.

Founded in Birmingham, England, in 1824 by John Cadbury, who was a Quaker,

the company was originally a coffee and tea manufacturer,

John hoping that his drinks would serve as an alternative to alcohol.

Drinking chocolates were all the rage back then.

And during the 1860s, Cadbury sold 16 varieties of the stuff.

The main byproduct was cocoa butter, which Cadbury began selling as "eating chocolates,"

chocolate-covered nougats, bonbons, caramels and more.

In a red-hot marketing move to promote their variety of chocolates,

John's son Richard sold them in heart-shaped boxes so that even when the chocolates were gone,

people could save the box to keep their memories and valentines.

Chocolate was already viewed as essential indulgence,

but this got the world's sweet tooth hot and bothered in a whole new way.

We already know that Chaucer was the first to start a centuries-long tradition

of students handing out cartoon-clad notes to their whole fourth-grade class and inspiring those magical 11 words:

"You bought this card at CVS on your way home, didn't you?"

But the oldest known Valentine as we would recognize it came in 1415 from the romantic confines of prison.

Charles, Duke of Orleans, referred to his wife, Bonne of Armagnac, as his "valentine" in a letter he wrote to her

while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London during the Hundred Years' War.

Translated to English, Charles' poem reads...

"My very gentle Valentine,

Since for me you were born too soon,

And I for you was born too late.

God forgives him who has estranged

Me from you for the whole year.

I am already sick of love,

My very gentle Valentine."

So, less a valentine and more the lyrics of an emo band from 2003,

but still pretty good for the Middle Ages.

In a not-so-happy ending, Charles was imprisoned for 25 years and Bonne died before he was released.

Turns out the practice of trolling in the comments section far predates the Internet, all the way back to the Victorian era.

Back in the 1800s, in addition to the valentine sent as a profession of love,

people would send vinegar valentines, often anonymously, to people they didn't like.

The sentiments ranged from a lighthearted jab to seriously harsh.

Scorned lovers would call out liars, cheaters, and alcoholics.

Others insulted their enemy's intelligence or physical attributes.

Many of the day's suffragettes received vinegars by the bagaload.

Mailing valentines was so popular that British postal workers were given special meal allowances

to keep them going during the days leading up to February 14th.

Card manufacturing had become much cheaper and easier during this time.

And one company in particular emerged to capitalize on the greeting card craze:

Hallmark.

The shape of the red heart has become a universal symbol for love,

but where did the heart symbol come from?

The one that's used on everything from playing cards to emojis to ill-conceived chest tattoos?

Scholars theorize it could have originated during ancient times with a plant,

possibly a giant fennel called Silphium.

The Greeks and Romans used the plant as a form of birth control,

and it became so popular as contraception and associated with sex that it was quickly farmed into extinction.

The ancient city of Cyrene, in present-day Libya, became so rich from farming Silphium

that it used the plant's shape on its currency, which bore a striking resemblance to our modern-day heart symbol.

Others believe the symbol emerged in medieval times when scientists attempted to illustrate Aristotle's ancient writings on anatomy,

where he described the human heart as having three valves with a dent in the middle.

Some just believe the symbol bears resemblance to the breast or buttocks.

Imagine your mom sending you a "Thanks for cleaning your room!!!" text with a peach emoji?

Thanks for saving us the embarrassment, Aristotle.

Valentine's Day in a few Middle Eastern countries brings a whole new meaning to the phrase,

"You shouldn't have."

Celebrating the holiday in Pakistan, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Saudi Arabia could get you severely punished.

The belief generally comes from Muslim officials within these countries who see Valentine's Day as a Christian holiday

or believe that it is un-Islamic and promotes casual sex and drinking alcohol, which are prohibited in the traditional Muslim faith.

In the Indonesian province of Aceh, just the sale of gifts could have you publicly caned.

In Malaysia, the Islamic Morality Police raided several hotels on Valentine's Day of 2011,

arresting 80 Muslims because they were sharing rooms while unmarried.

In Saudi Arabia, five men were discovered dancing with six women they weren't related to on Valentine's Day,

and were sentenced in 2014 to a total of 39 years in prison.

And in India, groups have pushed the idea of ditching the celebration of romantic love and replacing it with a parents' worship day.

Talk about a glow down.

The cute little cherubic cloud baby we know as Cupid used to be a strapping young hunk named Eros.

Eros is from Greek mythology, which predates the Romans' Cupid.

He was arguably one of the most powerful of all of the gods,

for he controlled the most powerful emotion:

love.

His quiver contained two types of arrows:

golden ones to strike overwhelming love and lead ones to invoke hate.

He wielded his weapons like a mythological cuff boy, creating disastrous matches of godly proportions.

In one story, he shot a golden arrow at Apollo, who fell madly in love with the nymph Daphne,

then shot Daphne with a lead arrow, causing her to be repulsed by Apollo,

leading to a whole lot of drama.

Classic Greeks.

Some scholars believe that the infantilization of Eros was simultaneous with the fall of the social status of women in Athenian society.

The Greeks were intimidated by this god who could control their love lives,

but they weren't intimidated by women.

So by transforming Eros into a cute little baby who always obeyed his mother, Aphrodite,

they were much more at ease.

There was no reason to be afraid, and now we've got an adorable chubby cherub to fawn over.

Dear viewer, you are as special as the moment I first saw you, eight minutes ago.

No matter what day it is,

I hope it's full of chocolates and golden arrows,

with no vinegar in sight.

Thank you for sticking with me for all these minutes.

It means the world to me.

Love, Video.