Valentine's Day: 'Commercialised celebration of love'

Valentine’s day:  Commercialised   celebration of love

 Manhattan,NY

Feb 16, 2018

I was coming to home from doctor’s clinic, Columbus Circle. It was an enough cold evening. But lots of crowd was flowing on the road As soon as I saw a joyful young couple with red bouquet of flowers , I remembered “it  is Valentine’s Day!’ Among the crowd I saw only two or three  young couples with hand-in-hand and boquete of flowers .Most were found in groups. My eyes caught hold few male couples ,both young and middle-aged male couples clutching each others’ hands  warmly .I twitted them silently ‘are you happy and “gay’! ………

So in this megacity high-tech super digital land of face book and twitter ,the  warmth of romance in valentine’s Day  brews much flavor among  the group or clan in place of  clan-destine romance of  love between two hearts in the  traditional world:  a game of change !

 But who was this St. Valentine and how his name was associated with love and romance?  I came to learn, mostly from internet and books  that this very old tradition originated from a Roman festival called “Lupercalia’ in 3^{rd or 5th} century AD;. Its history is shrouded  in mystery. There are different legends spanned around it.

Some story says Roman emperor Claudius11banned all marriages and engagements in Rome. Because  he believed that love and bondage of family life discouraged the Roman men to serve in the Army. 
St valentine defied it. Emperor Claudius11 executed two men both named Valentine on Feb14th of different years in the 3^rd century AD. Their martyrdom was  duly honoured by the catholic Church with the celebration of St Valentine’s Day.

 Isn’t it an irony that modern ‘day of love’  is based on the unjustified martyrdom(!)(or murder,who knows)   of someone for courage and honesty?... 
It seems, less we know the history, more  we will be happy.

Other story is more brutal.  In the festival of Lupercalia  men  would sacrifice a goat  and a dog. Then  the young women who stood  naked in a line  would be whipped by those drunken men with the hides of the sacrificed   animals just slain. It was believed that this ‘ritual’ would make them fertile. It  also included a match-making lottery{s-o- ridiculous!} in which young men drew the names of  women from a jar.

And they will be coupled up accordingly to fertile the the field for future battle of brutality! The Roman introduced this festival with the purpose to expel  Pegan  rituals. Later on the Christians covered up  the cruelty by patching 'colour  of love' upon it.  The literary works of Chaucer, Shakespeare romanticized valentine Day in their work and it flourished reputation throughout Europe as significant cultural, religious  and ‘commercial celebration of love’.

Today valentine’s Day contains vestiges of both Christian  and  ancient  Roman traditions. 

Anyway, festival means business and Valentine’s Day is a big business :bumper sale of cards, balloons,  flowers, food, movies  and what not(sale of  marital loyality in'Tinder' love or in 'Just for lunch' for introductory love--- where the market has no sunset throughout the year instead of a single fixed day)! It has become almost global festival in uprising countries.
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