Valentine's Day, also called Saint Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine,[1] is celebrated annually on February 14.[2] It originated as a Christian feast day honoring one or two early Christian martyrs named Saint Valentine. Through later folk traditions, it has become a significant cultural, religious, and commercial celebration of romance and love in many regions of the world.[3]
There are a number of martyrdom stories associated with various Valentines connected to February 14,[4] including an account of the imprisonment of Saint Valentine of Rome for ministering to Christians persecuted under the Roman Empire in the third century.[5][6] According to an early tradition, Saint Valentine restored sight to the blind daughter of his jailer.[7] Numerous later additions to the legend have better related it to the theme of love: an 18th-century embellishment to the legend claims he wrote the jailer's daughter a letter signed "Your Valentine" as a farewell before his execution;[8] another tradition posits that Saint Valentine performed weddings for Christian soldiers who were forbidden to marry.[6]
14th Feb A Love Story.pdf
The 8th century Gelasian Sacramentary recorded the celebration of the Feast of Saint Valentine on February 14.[9][10] The day became associated with romantic love in the 14th and 15th centuries when notions of courtly love flourished, apparently by association with the "lovebirds" of early spring. In 18th-century England, it grew into an occasion in which couples expressed their love for each other by presenting flowers, offering confectionery, and sending greeting cards, known as "valentines". Valentine's Day symbols that are used today include the heart-shaped outline, doves, and the figure of the winged Cupid. Since the 19th century, handwritten valentines have given way to mass-produced greeting cards.[11] In Italy, Saint Valentine's Keys are given to lovers "as a romantic symbol and an invitation to unlock the giver's heart", as well as to children to ward off epilepsy, called Saint Valentine's Malady.[12]
John Foxe, an English historian, as well as the Order of Carmelites, state that Saint Valentine was buried in the Church of Praxedes in Rome, located near the cemetery of Saint Hippolytus. This order says that according to legend, "Julia herself planted a pink-blossomed almond tree near his grave. Today, the almond tree remains a symbol of abiding love and friendship."[36][37]
According to legend, in order "to remind these men of their vows and God's love, Saint Valentine is said to have cut hearts from parchment", giving them to these soldiers and persecuted Christians, a possible origin of the widespread use of hearts on St. Valentine's Day.[41]
Saint Valentine supposedly wore a purple amethyst ring, customarily worn on the hands of Christian bishops with an image of Cupid engraved in it, a recognizable symbol associated with love that was legal under the Roman Empire;[39][42] Roman soldiers would recognize the ring and ask him to perform marriage for them.[39] Probably due to the association with Saint Valentine, amethyst has become the birthstone of February, which is thought to attract love.[43]
While the European folk traditions connected with Saint Valentine and St. Valentine's Day have become marginalized by modern customs connecting the day with romantic love, there are still some connections with the advent of spring.
Valentine's Day has only recently been celebrated as the day of love. The day of love was traditionally March 12, the Saint Gregory's day, or February 22, Saint Vincent's Day. The patron of love was Saint Anthony, whose day has been celebrated on June 13.[46]
Some researchers have theorized that Gelasius I replaced Lupercalia with the celebration of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary and claim a connection to the 14th century's connotations of romantic love, but there is no historical indication that he ever intended such a thing.[notes 2][49][50] Also, the dates do not fit because at the time of Gelasius I, the feast was only celebrated in Jerusalem, and it was on February 14 only because Jerusalem placed the Nativity of Jesus (Christmas) on January 6.[notes 3] Although it was called "Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary", it also dealt with the presentation of Jesus at the temple.[51] Jerusalem's Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary on February 14 became the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple on February 2 as it was introduced to Rome and other places in the sixth century, after Gelasius I's time.[51]
The first recorded association of Valentine's Day with romantic love is believed to be in the Parliament of Fowls (1382) by Geoffrey Chaucer, a dream vision portraying a parliament for birds to choose their mates.[29] Honoring the first anniversary of the engagement of fifteen-year-old King Richard II of England to fifteen-year-old Anne of Bohemia,[52] Chaucer wrote (in Middle English):
The earliest description of February 14 as an annual celebration of love appears in the Charter of the Court of Love. The charter, allegedly issued by Charles VI of France at Mantes-la-Jolie in 1400, describes lavish festivities to be attended by several members of the royal court, including a feast, amorous song and poetry competitions, jousting and dancing.[60] Amid these festivities, the attending ladies would hear and rule on disputes from lovers.[61] No other record of the court exists, and none of those named in the charter were present at Mantes except Charles's queen, Isabeau of Bavaria, who may well have imagined it all while waiting out a plague.[60]
The earliest surviving valentines in English appear to be those in the Paston Letters, written in 1477 by Margery Brewes to her future husband John Paston "my right well-beloved Valentine".[64]
In 1797, a British publisher issued The Young Man's Valentine Writer, which contained scores of suggested sentimental verses for the young lover unable to compose his own. Printers had already begun producing a limited number of cards with verses and sketches, called "mechanical valentines." Paper Valentines became so popular in England in the early 19th century that they were assembled in factories. Fancy Valentines were made with real lace and ribbons, with paper lace introduced in the mid-19th century.[68] In 1835, 60,000 Valentine cards were sent by post in the United Kingdom, despite postage being expensive.[69]
The rise of Internet popularity at the turn of the millennium is creating new traditions. Millions of people use, every year, digital means of creating and sending Valentine's Day greeting messages such as e-cards, love coupons or printable greeting cards. Valentine's Day is considered by some to be a Hallmark holiday due to its commercialization.[86]
In pre-Taliban years Koch-e-Gul-Faroushi (Flower Street) in the down town Kabul used to be adorned with innovative flower arrangements to attract Valentine's Day celebrating youth.[104] In the Afghan tradition, love is often expressed through poetry. Some new generation budding poets like Ramin Mazhar, Mahtab Sahel are expressing themselves through poetry using Valentine's Day expressing concerns on any likelihood of erosion of freedoms. In their political comment they defy fear by saying I kiss you amid the Taliban.[105][106]
Valentine's Day was first celebrated in Bangladesh by Shafik Rehman, a journalist and editor of Jaijaidin in 1993. He was acquainted with Western culture by studying in London.[107] He highlighted Valentine's Day to the Bangladeshi people through Jaijaidin newspaper. Rehman is called the "father of Valentine's Day in Bangladesh".[108] On this day, people in various bonds including lovers, friends, husbands and wives, mothers and children, students and teachers express their love for each other with flowers, chocolates, cards and other gifts. On this day, various parks and recreation centers of the country are full of people of love.[109][110] No public holiday is declared on this day in Bangladesh.
Valentine's Day celebrations did not catch on in India until around 1992. It was spread due to the programs in commercial TV channels, such as MTV, dedicated radio programs, and love letter competitions, in addition to an economical liberalization that allowed the explosion of the valentine card industry.[117][119] The celebration has caused a sharp change on how people have been displaying their affection in public since the Middle Ages.[117]
In modern times, Hindu and Islamic[123] traditionalists have considered the holiday to be cultural contamination from the West, a result of globalization in India.[117][119] Shiv Sena and the Sangh Parivar have asked their followers to shun the holiday and the "public admission of love" because of them being "alien to Indian culture".[124] Although these protests are organized by political elites, the protesters themselves are middle-class Hindu men who fear that the globalization will destroy the traditions in their society: arranged marriages, Hindu joint families, full-time mothers, etc.[119][123] Despite these obstacles, Valentine's Day is becoming increasingly popular in India.[125]
Valentine's Day has been strongly criticized from a postcolonial perspective by intellectuals from the Indian left. The holiday is regarded as a front for "Western imperialism", "neocolonialism", and "the exploitation of working classes through commercialism by multinational corporations".[126] It is claimed that as a result of Valentine's Day, the working classes and rural poor become more disconnected socially, politically, and geographically from the hegemonic capitalist power structure. They also criticize mainstream media attacks on Indians opposed to Valentine's Day as a form of demonization that is designed and derived to further the Valentine's Day agenda.[127][128]Right wing Hindu nationalists are also hostile. In February 2012, Subash Chouhan of the Bajrang Dal warned couples that "They cannot kiss or hug in public places. Our activists will beat them up".[129]He said "We are not against love, but we criticize vulgar exhibition of love at public places".[130] 2ff7e9595c
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