The day gets its name from a famous saint, but there are several stories of who he was. The most popular belief about St Valentine is that he was a priest from Rome in the third century AD.
Emperor Claudius II had banned marriage because he thought married men were bad soldiers.
Valentine thought this was unfair, so he broke the rules and arranged marriages in secret. When Claudius found out, Valentine was sentenced to death and thrown in jail. There, he fell in love with the jailor's blind daughter.
His love and belief in God cured her blindness, and when he was taken to be killed on 14 February he sent her a love letter signed "From your Valentine".
Valentine's Day is a very old tradition, thought to have originated from a pagan fertility festival.
The Romans had a festival called Lupercalia in the middle of February, officially the start of their springtime.
As part of the celebrations, boys drew names of girls from a box. They'd be boyfriend and girlfriend during the festival and sometimes they'd even get married!
The Christian church decided they wanted to turn this festival into a Christian celebration and decided to use it to remember the death of St Valentine too.
Gradually, St Valentine's name started to be used mainly by men to express their feelings to those they loved.
Simple... To me, EVERYDAY is "Valentine's Day". I don't have to wait for 14th February to express my love & appreciation to my love ones, especially to my husband. Of course it is nice to receive flowers, cards, chocolate, bubbly, gedebak, gedebuk, gedebish - but I don't expect anything fancy. Spending quality time with my love ones are good enough for me. I'm happy the most when I see them happy, relaxed & when we all goof around.
Everyday of the year is Valentine's Day. Love, cherish, appreciate, treasure & care for your love ones - no need to wait for 14 February...
To my boys, Glen, Danish & Noah - I LOVE YOU
XOXOX
No comments:
Post a Comment