Valentines Day !

The Valentines Day is over. It never was any special day for me. May be coz, it wasn’t part of my culture. But in the present day India, it sure is a special day. Year after year, its getting rooted, one way or the other.

It doesn’t mean that people here started believing in St.Valentine. But it is marketed well by MNCs with commercial interest. Coz, they can sell more. This year I got some anti-valentine messages and comments straight from staunch Christians itself. Their point is that this is not a day to celebrate since St.Valentine was brutally tortured and stuffs like that. And some call it as ‘Love Sucks Day’.

Many of them blame it on Hallmark, the card company for commercializing VDay. Now, if you search for anti-valentine cards or merchandize, they are in lots. For business people, what they want is money and they are ready to discount any kind of mass sentiments, irrespective of pro or anti. The irony is same people sell both.

But in general, I got lots of greetings from others, for the first time in my life, on this day. So for a moment I sat down to think about it.

I have not seen people of other religion showing some concern over Good Friday, when the incarnation of love got crucified. But the ‘love day’ got named after Valentine. So, who is this saint valentine? What is the historical background?

The truth is , nobody knows who exactly this saint valentine is….and there is no history to support !!

As per the Catholic Encyclopedia :

“At least three different Saint Valentines, all of them martyrs, are mentioned in the early martyrologies under date of 14 February….”

It is now said that it could be be:

1. A priest in Rome
2. A bishop of Interamna (which is now known as Terni)
3. A martyr in roman province of Africa.

And there is no history to support. When people started questioning these, some catholic church came out with a new idea that Feb 14 is the mid of that month and it is during this time the foul birds look for their mates and thus they connected it to love. And the commercial propagators started to promote it as the ‘love day’.

(the love element among birds and animals are different from how we humans perceive it…but may be that’s a different issue or something nobody is interested in)

So why is valentines day catching up this fast?

It looks like it is coz of the flirt element than the fun or love or faith element!!