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| Saturday, 14 February 2004 |
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My sweet Valentine: A rose by any other name will still smell as sweet by Prasad Abu Bakr On a day such as this lovers all over the world tend to exalt their presence above anything or everything else flaunting around what is most precious to them, singing its praises, dangling it around everybody's face and painting it in the passionate lush of red.
Making room for them to re-unite if they have drifted apart, this day allows one to describe it in the best of rhyme and verse, all the colourful words available within one's vocabulary as it involves a metaphor representing the finest of all human emotions that we learn to look for at the first blink of sight at birth. Gifts A single rose wrapped in a cone of daintily decorated cellophane, held together by a ribbon of gold lurex or a bouquet of roses in splendid red. The many cards describing notions of feelings towards one's lover. Pleading, begging, caressing and conveying in verse the feelings of love. Heart shaped cakes, chocolate chips in aromatic containers. Suggestive clothing wrapped in jazzy wrapping paper are some among the many gifts and messages that get exchanged on this day. To praise and address this day in such flamboyant terms it is only natural that a touch of commerce will creep in to do a perfect job. With an ancient Roman background to it 'Valentines Day' came to being not as a day of rejoicing but as a day of mourning by lovers of ancient Rome. When Emperor Claudius declared that all youth should join the forces to fight the war exempting married men from the rule, thus earning the wrath of lovers of the time who accused the Emperor of obstructing their freedom to fall in love.
Goddess Juno planned to collect the names of unmarried maidens and distribute them among the youth of Rome enabling them to find their ideal bride whom they united in marriage in the month of February, the last month of the Roman calendar at the time. These marriage ceremonies were carried out under the blessings of Archbishop Valentine. On hearing of the bishop's objections to his rule the emperor ordered that he be executed on the 14th of February, the very month that the bishop has set aside to marry off the young couples. Out of sheer devotion to the man who stood by their grievances the young men and women of Rome wore a piece of metal pendant around their neck with an engraving of the executed bishop's image on it every day of this year, to remember him as a mark of respect. Some experts state that Valentine's Day originated from St. Valentine, a Roman who was martyred for refusing to give up Christianity. He died on February 14, 269 A.D., the same day that had been devoted to love lotteries. Legend also says that St. Valentine left a farewell note for the jailer's daughter, who had become his friend, and signed it "From Your Valentine". Gradually, February 14 became the date for exchanging love messages and St. Valentine became the patron saint of lovers. The date was marked by sending poems and simple gifts such as flowers. There was often a social gathering or a ball. In the United States, Miss Esther Howland is given credit for sending the First Valentine cards. Commercial Valentines were introduced in the 1800s and now the date is very commercialised. The town of Loveland, Colorado, does a large post office business around February 14. The spirit of good continues as Valentines are sent out with sentimental verses and children exchange Valentine cards at school.
Held in high esteem as the day of romance throughout the world 'Valentines Day' brings out certain characteristics of human beings that yearn for love from their first day of birth. A baby cuddling to its mother while being breast fed and a mother taking pride over her child rushing to her at times of need rather than find solace in the arms of its father speaks of how interdependent human beings are when faced with an emotional situation which seeks total protection of another human being. But as we grow older and mature biologically to look for emotional security outside our parental domain becomes more acute. It is evident that most young people do not stop at falling in love with the first person they set their eyes upon [definitely not in this day and age] but having more than one partner at short intervals reflect the kind of emotional insecurity that some young people live with within their home boundaries. However it is this romance and love that is celebrated on Valentines Day even though it is a total alien entity to us but has found itself a perfect landing all over the world through the global network of mass communication in this century. It is also noticeable that the idea has also been snatched by commercial establishments dealing in all trades to further their business interest at large. Everything from chocolates to paper-pins have been designed with lovers in mind proving sometimes that as much as we find that love is not the easiest commodity that one can buy in a hurry. It sure is a commodity that can be marketed in mass. This does not mean that this whole idea of celebrating a day for lovers annually should be shunned in a hurry and also not merely because it is coming from the west. What should be looked in to is the fact that promoters and traders are busy turning the event into some kind of sexual carnival breaking ground for infidelity, this is not going to help the lovers or the traders who are looking forward for this day, on the long run. Every year as the climax builds up towards the celebrations of this day of romance the commercial euphoria begins its mass scale promotional activities marketing a human emotion as a commodity for buyers of all ages. At the early stages of this exercise the target group was the young and free thinking youth of Colombo susceptible to western values, probably because they are easier to attract owing to the fact that they are already exposed to this kind of `Day mania' which happens annually in the west. Today traders are getting closer to the more remote areas in an attempt to attract the village youth. FM broadcasting stations are busy promoting the event at large scale, some of the Sinhala stations go to satirical extremes in some of their morning programmes targeting young unmarried female listeners languishing at home., whether this is done intentionally to bring the event to a state of mockery is questionable. Monument of love Mothers Day, Fathers Day, Children Day or even the World Environmental Day are among many of the annual milestones that are celebrated globally and Valentines Day makes no difference in the string of events. But it's involvement in promoting something such as love makes it `un-holy' in these parts of the world where love is presumably held in high esteem and needs no refuelling to keep it's fires aflame annually. Taj Mahal in India stands as an evidence amongst many others, to this reality narrating a story of a mogul emperor who built this colossal monument as a tribute of his un-dying love towards his beloved queen. The story goes further stating that the emperor spent his final days in quiet meditation not taking his sight off this monument of love and ended his life doing so. This massive work of marble inlaid with many variety of precious stone and metals is not only remembered as a symbol of love but is already categorised as one of the seven wonders of the world. Our values In a country as ours where we are at high risk at losing certain values at the cost of wide western invasion in the form of development aid it should be our priority as to how we manage to adjust these trends to suit our way of life within a framework of acceptance by society. It is wise to adjust to something that we cannot avoid at any cost rather than trying in vain to fight it. We have exposed our selves to the mighty trends of mass communication in such un-controlled frenzy that to remote our selves from these kind of events will prove a futile exercise. True meaning If it is promoted as an event it is important that the people who do so grasp the true meaning of the event and plan it in a way that young people who look forward to this great event of theirs, do not lose faith in it and treat it as a commercial joke bringing down the romance involved down to the same level. In today's society it is a common sight to note how young people are confused between love and sex. Their judgement of it is taking strange patterns as they stand by their convictions refusing to accept reasons that are factual. A day such as Valentine's Day should be celebrated in a fashion of putting to right these confused state of minds giving a very clear signal that romance plays a crucial role in courting and that it is the base, and the only one, that will lead to love, emotional security and companionship. |
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Produced by Lake House |
As it comes around once a year it is only reasonable that the rest of
the world put up with this hysteria and allow the passion of youth to
explode in the glorious flames of fire beside allowing lovers all over to
celebrate, if they are in love.
Archbishop Valentine who was carrying out his duties at the time of
conducting betrothal ceremonies to please the wishes of Goddess Juno was a
strong opposer of this rule imposed by Emperor Claudius.
Giving it a different twist the modern day European recalls that the
month of February was considered a high mating season for many species of
birds in the region. And taking in to account the happenings during this
month in ancient Rome `Valentines Day' was set to be celebrated throughout
Europe on the 14th of February as an annual event.
