Valentine's Day and its origin

 

Ah... Valentine's day... The day we celebrate the emotion that we call "love". It is said, that love is the strongest emotion that a human being feels in their lifetime. Love, has the ability to give an ignition to many other important emotions in an individual, emotions like  sense of respect, hope,  trust, empathy, happiness, sorrow and euphoria, emotions that are the basics to drive a person throughout their life.

But do you know what the origin of this Valentine's day really is? Who is this Valentine? And why is the day to celebrate love named after him? Well you're up for a short story then…

Like wise minds have already foretold, Love is a double edged sword. The idea of this whole Valentine's day also came into existence because of clash between a priest and a ruler, and yes, love was the cause of this clash.
During the ending of the Golden era of the Roman Empire, Claudius II was in power, as the ruler he felt the need to protect the safety of the empire and to ensure that he needed soldiers. Soldiers whom he thought to be ineffective, as they were too attached to their families and loved ones. Therefore, he went to an extent of putting a ban on marriage all over the empire. According to him, marriage made men weak, therefore making his soldiers weak, thus this ban was something that was necessary.

This left young lovers all around the kingdom agitated and in peril. The one's who decided to marry anyway were executed immediately.  In these times of sorrow, a Priest came to the rescue. Understanding the pain that young lovers felt, St. Valentine decided to go against the ruler, against the law imposed and started to secretly conduct marriage ceremonies for young couples who still wanted to take the risk. Soon, more and more people started to undergo the ceremony in secrecy, and St. Valentine became known as the "Friend of lovers". However, Claudius II soon found out about this and well, he had Valentine arrested.
Here, comes the best part of the story. Now let's not forget St. Valentine was one of Jesus's followers and was also a priest with great belief in his religion and it's power. Asterius, who was the jailer who was assigned to execute the priest, had a blind daughter. Asterius approached St. Valentine and offered to help him, if in return he could heal his daughter's eyes, which selflessly Valentine did, keeping his hand on the daughter's eyes while praying to the almighty, and when the prayer was done, Asterius's daughter really could finally see.

Moving on, Asterius tried his best to save St. Valentine after that, but Claudius was rigid about his decision. 

N

ow the story also tells us about how St. Valentine had taken a liking to the young girl he had healed and the feelings between them were mutual.

Sadly, St. Valentine was executed, but not before he left a letter to his lover which ended with the phrase "From your Valentine", a phrase that lived ever after. I know, that was quite a story. But mind you this was only me telling you the story in brief, the main facts, there are many more stories about St. Valentine so if you really want to know more, do search him up sometime, these stories really do peak my interest.

Now that you know what Valentine's day is all about, let me remind you one thing still, Valentine's Day is about the emotion of Love. Love is present not just between lovers but also families and friends. Valentine's day is to celebrate every person with whom we share the bond of love, by appreciating their efforts and their support that they've shown to us, to celebrate that very important bond.

Now there are a few days that also come along side this celebrated day. Let me give you a calendar so you can remember...

7th Feb– Rose Day-Tuesday.

8th Feb– Propose Day-Wednesday.

9th Feb– Chocolate Day-Thursday.

10th Feb– Teddy Day- Friday.

11th Feb– Promise Day- Saturday.

12th Feb– Kiss Day- Sunday.

13th Feb– Hug Day- Monday.

14th Feb– Valentine's day- Tuesday.

Now, let me remind you something, remember when I mentioned that Love is a double edged sword? These days that come before Valentine's day, if you want to celebrate them, do so with caution. Be sure that the person that you want to celebrate these with really does show a spark of interest towards you too, or else, as we know, the times we live in now, you might be inviting a rejection.

But that's okay... An average Human being falls in love atleast three to four times in their life-span, think of it as one of those trial  and error times, until you find the one who's perfectly fitted for you!

But yes, I know the past year has been tough, and you want to celebrate this day with your loved ones happily but do not forget that the virus is still in the air, do take caution whenever you interact with each other and enjoy yourselves to the fullest while maintaining safe boundaries.

Happy Valentines day everyone!

-Akanksha Mitter