Valentine’s Day is here at last and everyone is busy thinking about what to buy for their loved ones. Though the festival commemorates the martyrdom of a Christian saint called St. Valentine, the festival as it is celebrated today, has very little religious significance. In present times, Valentine’s Day has assumed a secular and global flavour and is celebrated by people of all ages and races. Another noticeable factor in Valentine’s Day celebration is that the festival celebrates love in all its forms and is not just restricted to romantic love. People therefore exchange Valentine’s Day greetings with their parents, teachers, siblings, friends, sweethearts or anyone very special or close to them. Valentine’s Day is supposed to be an occasion to display love, affection and care for our family, friends and partners. But now in this modern world, it does not seem that way anymore, for families and friends are mostly wiped off the list leaving just the partner in it.
I always wonder, is this the only day we can show affection for the people we love? Do we have to be in the mood to love our loved ones? Or celebrating Valentine’s Day is just following the trend because nearly every other couple in the world keeps celebrating it? What I mean is everyone runs around on this occasion frothing, proclaiming their love and pledging their eternal allegiance to their loved ones. If someone truly cared about you, shouldn’t the feelings of ‘I love you’ be made known to each other more often? It’s certainly not necessary to present each other with a heart shaped cardboard box filled with chocolates or a bouquet of flowers that cost extraordinarily expensive at that time of the year. Sometimes I think that this is surpassingly done to cover all wrongs and faults in the relationship, leaving the giver free from all the sins he/she had committed within the past year. Love, flowers, presents, dinner, romantic…. Those positive words we could think of when we thought about Valentine’s Day could just go on and on. But never had anyone thought about bankruptcy and arguments before?
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
