The origin of Valentine’s Day is as uncertain as any of the other mysteries of this wonderfully fascinating world we inhabit. I (as am sure many others too) have read far and wide to find something, anything that can shed some light on the ancestry of this craze that ripples through globe in the middle of the second month of every Julian calendar year...and my word, there are quite some fantastic albeit apocryphal theories out there. In modern times however, February 14 has just about been universally accepted as “Lover’s Day” – what is yet unclear is if the “love” in question is off the romantic or normal “brotherly- sisterly” or “motherly-fatherly” kind. Popular opinion learns ever so heavily towards romance.
There is a great many people who question the relevance of St. Valentine’s Day; especially where it concerns the idea of it being a day exclusively for romantic lovers. Not surprisingly, the most vitriolic of the criticisms come from the religious sector.
.Amongst the many arguments against St. Val’s is the claim of it originally being a day for pagan worship of some sorts...whatever happened to moving on! Yes, it may have been a day to mark some pagan festivities (or so says many a popular legend)...but that was in the past; borrowing words from the youthful vocabulary of these days, I think it’s safe to say St. Valentine’s Day has been “pimped” or “upgraded” as the case may be.
A very much less venomous argument against St. Valentine’s is the school of thought that believes that love should be an “everyday thing” and not a mere one day for lovers to embark on a public display of affection. While this line of argument is not entirely wrong or right for that matter; but in this world where all our thoughts are consumed by addressing one problem or the other and everything is like a race against the clock, how many couples actually take time out to treat themselves with the attention, affection and care that relationships need to grow? How many times do we see couples hold hands, eat together, exchange gifts or have a quiet time to reflect on their lives together, chit-chat and have good, hearty laughs on the average “ordinary” day? Some people don’t even call their partners...no time to see each other, no time for outings. Particularly in Naija; where it usually takes a special occasion (birthdays, anniversaries etc) for people to do anything out of the ordinary.
This for me, more than anything else, is one reason why the importance of St. Valentine’s Day cannot be undermined. At the very least, for a handful of hours in one day in a year, some couples will be forced to make out that time for each other and celebrate it in their own special way.
From a moral stand-point, it is rather saddening to see the way many people (predominantly youths and teenagers) have chosen to commemorate the day with all sort of perverse activities not befitting of the purpose of the day. But otherwise, why else should there not be a “Lovers’ Day”!!? A day specially set aside for TRUE LOVERS all around the world to call their own. A day where the spirit of TRUE LOVE is upheld and celebrated in the eyes of all, in the most appropriate of ways suited to the persons involved.
Furthermore, there is practically a universally recognized day, week or month for just about everything else on the face of the planet from sensible to the downright absurd...Mother’s Day, International Women’s Day, HIV-AIDS Day, Darwin Day, World Forest Day, World Book Day, Mental Health Month, Vegetarian Week, Kiss Your Mate Day (believe it or not), April Fool’s Day, International Lesbian’s Day, Ground’s hog Day, Lesbian & Gay Pride Day...and this is only just to mention only a few. So, pray tell, why LOVE shouldn’t have a day of its own!?
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