Valentine’s Day has been celebrated for centuries. While its origins are debated, according to the HistoryChannel.com, one of the most widely accepted origins is based on a martyred Christian saint named Valentine.

It is believed that St. Valentine, who was a priest during the third century in Rome, would marry young Romans, even though Emperor Claudius II had outlawed marriage.

Claudius outlawed marriage because he believed single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families. When he found out Valentine was marrying in secret, he ordered him executed. Some believe the holiday is celebrated to commemorate his death.

Lauren Leitner, a junior is psychology, said she heard that Valentine sent the first valentine himself. She said she read that before he died, Valentine wrote a letter to a girl he had fallen in love with and signed it “From your Valentine.”

Because of the romantic nature of this story, by the Middle Ages Valentine had become one of the most popular saints in England and France. Valentine’s Day became popular in Great Britain during the 17th century, according to the HistoryChannel.com, and made its way to the Americas in the early 1700s.

However, Theodore Greenstein, associate professor in sociology, said Valentine’s Day is a “big deal” now for the same reason holidays like Father’s Day and Mother’s Day are popular — the money involved.

“As long as there’s money to be made, whoever can make money from it is going to maintain it as an event,” Greenstein.

These money-making entities, according to Greenstein, range from florists to greeting card makers to restaurants.

Because of improvements in printing technology, printed Valentine’s Day cards began to replace written letters around the end of the 17th century, and in the 1840s the first mass-produced valentines were sold by Esther A. Howland, according to the HistoryChannel.com.

Now, according to the Greeting Card Association, there are about 1 billion valentine cards sent a year, making it second only to Christmas, with 2.6 billion cards.

But in the midst of so much love and giving, the disconcerting thing about Valentine’s Day, according to Greenstein, is the way it can negatively affect people. He said for those not in relationships, it makes for a very difficult day.

“If you don’t have a partner on Valentine’s Day, and you look and see other people get gifts and flowers and going out for dinner and so on, it certainly can make you feel left out of the process,” he said.

He compared it to being alone at any other social event.

“It’s like not getting a date to the prom … everybody wants to fit in, and everybody wants to be like everybody else,” Greenstein said.

According to Leitner, Valentine’s Day pressures people into believing they have to be in a relationship.

“They feel socially deprived,” she said. “They are left out of all the events that happen during the day, because there is so much emphasis put on it by gift giving.”

However, Greenstein said single people are not the only ones who can be adversely affected on Valentine’s Day.

“The people that do have partners are also under some pressure to make sure they do the right thing on Valentine’s Day,” he said.

Leitner also emphasized the pressure that could result from gift giving. She said couples who had been together longer and felt more comfortable together, felt less pressure to buy the right gift. For those couples, the idea behind the gift is what matters the most.

For those new to a relationship, though, she said the gift itself could make all the difference.

“The gift is key on Valentine’s Day if you’re in a relationship,” she said. “It can ruin the day, or it can make it the best day that you’ve had together.”