HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY !!!
Today is the February 14th, which more familiar as the celebration day of love - the Valentine's Day, and the whole month as the moment of romance. What is exactly Valentine? Why everybody celebrate it as the symbol of love?
Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he outlawed marriage for young men as his crop of potential soldiers. Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When Valentine's actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death. According to one legend, Valentine actually sent the first 'valentine' greeting himself. While in prison, it is believed that Valentine fell in love with a young girl who may have been his jailor's daughter and visited him regularly during his confinement. He wrote her a letter before his death, which he signed 'From your Valentine,' an expression that is still in use today.
While some believe that Valentine's Day is celebrated in the middle of February to commemorate the anniversary of Valentine's death or burial, which probably occurred around 270 A.D, others claim that the Christian church may have decided to celebrate Valentine's feast day in the middle of February in an effort to 'christianize' celebrations of the pagan Lupercalia festival.
In ancient Rome, February was the official beginning of spring and was considered a time for purification. Houses were ritually cleansed by sweeping them out and then sprinkling salt and a type of wheat called spelt throughout their interiors. Lupercalia, which began at the ides of February, February 15, was a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, as well as to the Roman founders Romulus and Remus. The festival would ended at all the young women in the city would place their names in a big urn. The city's bachelors would then each choose a name out of the urn and become paired for the year with his chosen woman. These matches often ended in marriage. Pope Gelasius declared February 14 St. Valentine's Day around 498 A.D. The Roman 'lottery' system for romantic pairing was deemed un-Christian and outlawed.
Later, during the Middle Ages, it was commonly believed in France and England that February 14 was the beginning of birds' mating season, which added to the idea that the middle of February -- Valentine's Day -- should be a day for romance. In Great Britain, Valentine's Day began to be popularly celebrated around the seventeenth century. By the middle of the eighteenth century, it was common for friends and lovers in all social classes to exchange small tokens of affection or handwritten notes. By the end of the century, printed cards began to replace written letters due to improvements in printing technology. Ready-made cards were an easy way for people to express their emotions in a time when direct expression of one's feelings was discouraged. Cheaper postage rates also contributed to an increase in the popularity of sending Valentine's Day greetings. According to the Greeting Card Association, an estimated one billion valentine cards are sent each year, making Valentine's Day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year.
Whatever lies behind the celebration of Valentine's Day, the celebrations in the name of love and romance are not a bad thing at all. What flaws is when the celebrations are no longer pure based on love but mainly driven by the modern life style and as a result of some marketing strategy. The celebration of Valentine's Day nowadays seems to be more perceived as the capitalization of love to support the consumerism culture instead of romance. Love on Valentine's Day seems have to be expressed by gifts, cards, dinner, etc. which everything leads to some consumerism. Whereas love is something that can be expressed modestly by simple cares not expensive gifts, by sincere words not poshy cards, and by togetherness not exquisite dinner. Love is a good thing and the celebrations should not be limited into just one day. Love is something that worth to celebrate for everyday in our life.
* Posted by 3k4 @ 10:07 PM *
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