 No, Valentine's Day was not created by the greeting card companies, and at first it likely had less to do with love than it did orgies, animal sacrifice, and overall debauchery. Thank the ancient Romans. Well, naturally, the Pope didn't like any of that, so he canceled that sex party known as Lupercalia, and that time later became known as St. Valentine's Day, which, by the way, was named after one of three different dudes, and we don't know which one it was. It's basically the Moripovich of holidays. The cards didn't come about until the 1850s, a time where you'd become someone's Valentine for a whole year. Imagine being stuck with you-up guy from Tender for a whole 365 days. But Esther Hallen decided to make a few bucks off of romance by slapping some lace on some paper. Hallmark then picked up the idea in the 20th century, and now who we are. But the next time your boyfriend tries to get out of buying you some flowers, you can tell him.