Valentine's Day - Love Is In The Air

You find yourself walking down the street and all you saw was flowers, heart shapes items and most likely reddish and pinkish stuffs on sale. For most of us had known, it's the upcoming arrival of the Valentine's Day.

Valentine's - A day to show love?

 The V-day, Valentine's day which falls on every year's 14th of February! From what you can see on Facebook, many of them start sharing pictures about Valentine's a few days before it is. Some even complained that why do they need to attend classes on Valentine's day. It seems like Valentine's is an important day too. So how did you spend spend the day?

 

with your partner?

or with your friends? #togetheralone

Anyway, it doesn't matter how did you celebrate your valentine's, what matters is, how much do you know about Valentine's? How did Valentine's day exist? And why do people give away flowers and presents on this day?

For your information, Valentine's Day was started in the time of the Roman Empire. In ancient Rome, February 14th was a holiday to honour Juno, who was the Queen of the Roman Gods and Goddess. She is also know as the Goddess of women and marriage. On the following day, 15th of February, the Feast of Lupercalia begins.

The young boys and girls were strictly separated during that time. One of the customs that the young people do was drawing. Therefore, on the eve of the festival of Lupercalia, the names of the Roman girls were written on slips of paper and then placed into jars. Then, each young man would draw out a piece of paper which a girl's name is written on it from the jar. The chosen girl and the young boy would be partners for the duration of the festival. Sometimes the pairing of the young boy and girl lasted an entire year. It somehow happened very often, that they would fall in love and eventually get marry later.

 

To my Dear, Valentine

However, the Emperor Claudius II Rome was very cruel. During that time, Claudius the Cruel was facing a difficult time in getting soldiers to join his military leagues. As a result, he believed that the roman men did not want to leave their love ones or families. Hence, he cancelled all the marriages and engagements in Rome. 

There was a priest whose name is Saint Valentine. He and Saint Marius aided the Christian martyrs and secretly married couples. As a result, Saint Valentine was apprehended and dragged before the Prefect of Rome, who condemned him to be beaten to death with clubs and to have his head cut off. He suffered martyrdom on the 14th day of February. Therefore, in order to give memorial to the good deeds done by Saint Valentine, it was named as Valentine's day on 14th of February.

Saint Valentine

These are some of the traditions of Valentine's day:

1. In Wales, wooden love spoons will be carved and given away as gifts on this day. The favourite decorations on the spoons were hearts, keys and keyholes which has the meaning, "You unlock my heart!"

Wooden Love Spoons

2. In the Middle Ages, there was a drawing where the young men and women would drew names from a bowl to see who their valentine's would be. They would even wear these names on their sleeves so that it is easy for others to understand how you feel.

Draw names from the bowl - Who's your valentine's?

3. In some countries, some young men would give gift of a clothing to the women. If the women keep it, it means she will marry with him. 

4. There were also some sayings that, on Valentine's day, if a woman saw a robin flying over head, it means that she will be marrying with a sailor. On the other hand, if she saw a sparrow, it means that she will be marrying with a poor man. If she saw a goldfinch, it means her husband is a millionaire. 

5. Thinks of five or six names considered to be suitable marriage partners and twists the stem of an apple while the names are being recited, then it is believed the eventual spouse will be the one whose name was recited at the moment the stem broke.

Apple

6. If you cut an apple in half and count how many seeds are inside, you will also know how many children you will have.

After knowing about the history of Valentine's day, let's look at how Malaysians celebrate this day. On this day or the eve, you can see that the Petaling Street is filled with the selling of the lovey-dovey roses. Bouquets of roses in the wrapping of Valentine's are sold. Not only roses, but also bears and chocolates! The price can range from lowest RM 10 to above RM 100! It depends on what you choose.

Petaling street filled with the love atmosphere

Girls love bears, don't they?

A bouquet of flowers and Ferrero Rochers

Do you know why roses are given on this day, why not other flowers? This is because roses symbolise beauty, passion and LOVE. In addition, different colors of roses have different meanings. Red is for love; yellow is for friendship; white for true love and purity; pink is for friendship and sweethearts while black means farewell.

Have you seen blue roses?

Pretty roses!

For some couples who may feels that giving flowers may be a waste of money, people came out with an idea whereby they improvised the meaning of flowers. From giving roses, they replaces them with chocolates and some with soft toys on it to symbolised their sincerity. It's also can be considered as a kind of advantages which the sender can send both chocolates and flowers at the same time.

one of the big bouquet of Ferrero Rocher flower.

Valentine's Day have been a trend for the people right now. Some may felt that this is one of the tactic used to sell out their products at higher price, but the true meaning of Valentine's Day is to appreciate and show affection to the partners. This day, not only the couples celebrate it. There are some who celebrate this with their family members and friends. 

BY: YEONG YEE SIONG