Today is Valentine’s Day, a day set aside for romance and expressions of love and affection. The traditional western holiday has grown to be observed in many countries around the globe, despite some efforts to fight its adoption by religious and cultural groups. As couples exchange traditional gifts of flowers and chocolate, they fuel a robust industry in the United States, where Valentine’s Day spending this year is expected to reach nearly $16 billion. Gathered here are images of this Valentine’s Day from all around the world.
Love is in the air on Valentine’s Day on February 14. Even though we believe that love should be spread and celebrated every day, we don’t always remember to do that. So on this dedicated day, go above and beyond in expressing your love for family, friends, and of course, your significant other.
It is one of the most commercially important holidays of the year. On Valentine’s Day, people celebrate their loved ones by exchanging Valentine’s Day cards and chocolates; gifts; flowers, especially red roses. The evening is also popular for date nights.
Today, Valentine’s Day is no longer just a day for lovers. It is also celebrated by friends, co-workers, family members, and children in schools.
Valentine’s Day is not a legal public holiday anywhere in the world.
Valentine’s day in Bangladesh
In 1993, Valentine’s Day was celebrated in Bangladesh by Shafik Rehman, a journalist and editor of Jaijaidin. He was acquainted with Western culture by studying in London. He highlighted the Valentine’s Day to the Bangladeshi people through Jaijaidin newspaper. It is learned that when someone went to his newspaper office in Tejgaon for a job, he had to take his girlfriend with him. Shafik Rehman was the first to use the title Valentine’s Day. That is why Shafik Rehman is called the “father of Valentine’s Day in Bangladesh”.He also named the street in front of his office “Love lane”. Due to its publicity in various television and print media and for commercial reason the day became popular in Bangladesh.
Celebrations
This day is widely celebrated by the youth of Bangladesh. However, this day did not have any effect in the village. No public holiday is declared on this day in Bangladesh.
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.
There is a lot of controversy about celebrating Valentine’s Day in Bangladesh. Some in Bangladesh feel that celebrating this day is not acceptable from a cultural and Islamic point of view.There is also political debate about Valentine’s Day. Before the celebration of Valentine’s Day, February 14 was celebrated as the anti-authoritarian day in Bangladesh. As a continuation of the movement against the education policy of the then government in 1983, on 14 February, 10 people were shot dead by the police while the students were marching towards the secretariat to give a memorandum. However, that day is forgotten by people to celebrate Valentine’s Day. Some people think that the government has continued to observe this day for its own sake.
HISTORY OF VALENTINE’S DAY
The believed origins is that it came from the feast for the patron saints named Valentine, by the Catholic Church during the in 496 AD. This was a way to over shadow and later replace the deemed brutal Pagan festival of Lupercalia. This festival was celebrated at the beginning of spring and paid homage to the Roman God of Agriculture, Faunus, on February 15. A goat and dog would be sacrificed symbolizing fertility and purity, respectively. This would then involve the hide of the goat being torn into strips, dipped in the sacrificial blood, and painted across the women and crops.
Despite there being many Valentines associated with the patron saints day, historians believe that the romanticized element of how Valentine’s Day is celebrated today came from a priest who was martyred by emperor Claudis II Gothicus in around 270 CE. Varying stories talk about different St Valentines with some saying one was marrying couples in secret to prevent men going off to war, another healed the blind, and the next wrote a message to his daughter signed ‘your Valentine’. There is also a possibility that they could be the same person!
It was during the 1400s that the day was associated with romance. Messages, or ‘Valentines’ as they were called, began to appear. Hand written letters and poems declaring affections of love became more and more popular. In the mid-1800s, Valentine’s cards began to be commercially produced and traditional gifts were candy and flowers, especially red roses symbolizing love and beauty.
Today, Valentine’s Day has become inclusive of friends and family to show how much you care and love them. Companies have seized the opportunity to fit their products and services into the Valentine’s Day period to benefit from the sales boost, as it continues to grow each year.
The Dark History of Valentine’s Day
The origins of St. Valentine’s Day can be found in ancient Christianity. It’s commonly accepted that the holiday is named after a Saint Valentine. Which one is a question of debate. It is thought that at least two Valentines: Saint Valentine of Rome and Saint Valentine of Terni, were executed on February 14 by Roman Emperor Claudius II. Both Valentines lost their heads for converting Romans to Christianity and performing miracles.
Due to the similarities in their stories, some scholars believe that the two Saint Valentines were actually a single person.
In the 5th century, Pope Gelasius I designated February 14 as the feast day of St. Valentine’s.
The Legend of St. Valentine
Over the years, the legend of St. Valentine took on new myths making February 14 the day for lovers. The most popular story is that he was secretly marrying Roman soldiers. Some historians, however, claim that no such ban on marriages ever took place.
Another popular but unproved story is that St. Valentine fell in love with his jailer’s daughter while in prison. Before being beheaded, he wrote a love letter to her, signing it “Your’s Valentine.”
Lupercalia: The Ancient Roman Festival
It is sometimes thought that the Feast of Valentine was a nod to Lupercalia, a Roman pagan festival celebrated on February 15 in Rome. Unlike the romantic nature of Valentine’s Day, Lupercalia was a festival filled with violence and ritual sacrifice to please Lupercus, the Roman God of Fertility. Pope Gelasius I, however, was very critical of Lupercalia, so it is unlikely that he was using it to base his version of the Feast of St. Valentine.
Valentine’s Day in the Middle Ages
Valentine’s Day as the day of lovers likely owes its existence to Geoffrey Chaucer, the English writer and poet. The bestselling author of Canterbury Tales published a poem called “The Parliament of Fowls.” He wrote, “Seynt Valentynes day” is the day birds chose their mates. It is possible that Chaucer didn’t literally write a poem describing the mating season of birds, but was instead referring to the marriage of King Richard II (1367–1400) and Anne of Bohemia.
Valentine’s Day Letters
With Chaucer’s poem, the idea of February 14 as the day of love quickly became popular. The first recorded Valentine’s letter is dated 1415 and was a French poem written by Charles Duke of Orleans to his wife while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London.
The tradition of exchanging Valentine’s Day letters and poems crossed the seas to the United States in the 1800s. Early versions of Valentine cards were fashioned out of satin and lace. They were ornamented with flowers, ribbons, and images of cupid or love birds.
Today, Americans spend around a billion dollars every Valentine’s Day on greeting cards, while the British spend about 45 million pounds.
Chocolate and Valentine’s Day
Soon, other industries started competing for the Valentine’s Day market. During the Victorian era, Richard Cadbury of the Cadbury chocolate fame marketed heart-shaped chocolate boxes adorned with flowers and cherubs, which also soon became well-known symbols of February 14.
Valentine’s Day in the Christian Church
In 1969, the Roman Catholic Church removed the Feast from its calendar. It was replaced by the Feast of Saints Cyril and Methodius. However, the feast day of St. Valentine’s is still observed by some local Catholic Churches that follow the traditional Catholic calendar. Catholics in Balzan, Malta, where relics associated with the Saint have been thought to be found, also observe the Feast of Saint Valentines.
Other Christian denominations that still observe the Feast of St. Valentines include the Anglican Communion and Lutheran Churches. Eastern Orthodox denominations celebrate the Feast of St. Valentine on April 24, July 6, or July 30.
Valentine’s Day Around the World
Today, Valentine’s Day has moved away from its religious origins and has become a well-known holiday celebrated worldwide, with many cultures creating their own traditions:
- In Norwich, United Kingdom a person called Jack Valentine randomly visits people and leaves Valentine’s Day gifts in front of their doors. The Valentine’s Day equivalent of Santa, Jack is also known to leave useless gifts or play tricks with people.
- South Koreans celebrate many months of love, starting on February 14, when women woo their partners with chocolates and flowers. On March 14 or White Day, their partners respond in kind. For those unable to find love, April 14 or Black Day is a day to feel sorry about their single status.
In many countries, February 14 is a trendy day to propose marriage and hold a wedding.
The Many Different Dates For Love
Not all countries celebrate love and lovers in February.
In Brazil, Valentine’s Day or Dia de São Valentim is celebrated on July 12, which falls on the eve of Saint Anthony’s Day, the patron saint of matchmaking. According to sources, the decision to move the holiday to July in 1948 was purely commercial: to boost sales during the year’s lowest sales month.
Uruguayans celebrate their day of love sometime in October, depending on when the market needs a boost.
Colombians observe Día del Amor y Amistad or the Day of Love and Friendship on the third Saturday of September.
Bolivians celebrate their day of love on September 21, the first day of spring in the Southern Hemisphere.
On January 25, Wales celebrates Saint Dwynwen, the Welsh patron saint of lovers. Historically, Welsh men gifted love spoons, intricately carved wooden spoons, as their token of love.
In China, the 7th day of the 7th Chinese lunar month is celebrated as the Chinese Day of love. The Qixi Festival or the Double Seventh Festival honors the love story of the Niulang, a herder, and Zhinü, a weaver girl. It has been observed in China since the Han Dynasty.
In the Jewish calendar, Tu B’Av, which falls on the 15th of the month of Av, is considered to be the Jewish day for lovers. In Israel, the day is dedicated to cultural events and is a popular day for proposals and weddings.
A Week-Long Celebration
Valentine’s Day celebrations have expanded to a week-long festival called Valentine’s Day Week in some countries like India. The week begins with Rose Day on February 7, followed by Propose Day (February 8), Chocolate Day (February 9), Teddy Day (February 10), Promise Day (February 11), Hug Day (February 12), and Kiss Day (February 13).
Seven days not enough? Argentina celebrates La Semana de la Dulzura or the Week of Sweetness in the first week of July. It was created as a marketing campaign for candy and is meant to be celebrated by exchanging kisses for chocolates and sweets.
