Valentine's day

Hi friends, I hope you're fine?

(Picture source)

Today is my birthday, 36 years old 🎉🎁 !!! And Wednesday is Valentine's Day, it's lovers' day.

Personally, I'm not a fan of this festival because I find it a little comical to see all those lovers huddled together in restaurants that night holding hands and looking in the whites of their eyes. I'm a little rebellious and when it comes to doing like everyone else at the same time, it cuts me all desire. A little like for Christmas Eve on 31/12/2018, just knowing that everyone is obliged to party at the same time that day, I would like to celebrate another day 🙃

Let's go back to Valentine's Day, it's lovers' day. Couples take the opportunity to exchange sweet words and gifts as proof of love as well as red roses that are the emblem of passion.

History

(Picture source)

The origin of this festival is attested in the 14th century in Britain, still Catholic, where Valentine's Day on February 14th was celebrated as a lovers' holiday because it was thought that the birds chose this day to mate.

This holiday then spread across the continent.
Valentin de Terni, celebrated on February 14th, is designated by the Catholic Church as patron saint of lovers with Pope Alexander VI who gives him the title of "patron of lovers" in 1496.

The documents are quite numerous until the mid-nineteenth century to see the extension of the custom in the European aristocracy and its dissemination in the popular milieu in the eighteenth century.

Valentine's Day as a commercial festival developed in the United States in the mid-nineteenth century, with the sale of cards reminiscent of small notes that were exchanged Valentine's and Valentine.

Valentine's Day has become a secular festival in the twentieth century.

It is a commercial party for some and an opportunity to celebrate love for others.

The holiday is now associated with the mutual exchange of sweet words or gifts illustrated with symbols such as a winged heart or cupid.

Valentines

At least three different saints named Valentin, all three martyrs, are celebrated on February 14th. Their feast was fixed on this date by decree of Pope Gelase I, in 495. They are mentioned since in the first martyrologies :

• Valentin of Rome, a priest who suffered martyrdom in Rome in the second half of the third century and who was buried on Via Flaminia.

• Valentin de Terni, a bishop of Terni who also suffered martyrdom in the second half of the third century and who was also buried on Via Flaminia.

• Valentine of Rhetia, monk wrestling and preacher of the fifth century.

According to the Roman Martyrology of 1705, the first two Valentin (dead at the same time and buried in the same place), would in fact be the same person, presented under its two successive functions. His cult has spread along the Via Flaminia, from Terni to Rome and to Bavaria which receives his relics, which explains that we venerate under the name of Valentine's Day three different characters who do not reality only one.

Origin

The first mention of Valentine's Day with a romantic connotation goes back to the 14th century in England, where it was believed that February 14th was the day when birds mated. It was common during this period that lovers exchange tickets and call each other their valentine. It is likely that several legends about Valentine's Day were invented during this period.

These legends include :

• The day before the martyrdom of St. Valentine, he slipped a "valentine" to the girl of the jailer who read "on behalf of your Valentine".

• During a period when Roman Emperors were not allowed to marry by Emperor Claudius II, St. Valentine secretly arranged marriages. In most versions of this legend, February 14 is the date of his martyrdom.

It was Otto de Grandson, during the second half of the 14th century, poet and Vaudois captain at the English court, who made this custom known in the Latin world through his poems dedicated to this tradition.

Valentine's Day in the world

In France, florists make the day of Valentine's Day the turnover they would usually make in a week. Rose represents 80% of sales.

In China, there already existed a medieval festival dedicated to lovers, the Qixi, "Chinese Valentine's Day" held on the seventh day of the seventh moon. Since the 1980s, Valentine's Day on February 14 has enjoyed significant popularity, especially among young people, which generates various commercial activities.

In Japan, Valentine's Day was introduced by chocolate makers in the late 1950s. It is a commercial party where women offer chocolates to men.
They offer it to the loved one but also as a courtesy to their male work colleagues, their boss, or their family. Then, the men who received chocolates can offer a gift to women in return for the white day celebrated on March 14th. As a present, women receive white chocolate, jewelry or white lingerie. The absence of a gift in return must be considered as a sign of a one-sided love. This concept launched in Japan extended to South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

(Picture source)

In Taiwan, men offer heavy bouquets of meaning: a unique red rose for "my only love", 99 roses for "eternal love" and 108 roses for a marriage proposal.

In Algeria, Valentine's Day, celebrated on February 14th, is more popular among young people. Couples offer themselves that day roses and chocolate and more rarely other gifts. In schools, we also speak of students who offer roses to their mistresses.

In Lebanon, on this day, lovers are offered chocolates, cakes, roses and other gifts symbolizing love. High schools and colleges organize, for Valentine's Day, the Red Day, where students come dressed in red without wearing the school uniform and where there is sale of cakes, chocolate, and exchanges of hugs and gifts.

In Tunisia, Valentine's Day is very popular; couples are taking advantage of this day to give themselves gifts and organize romantic outings or one-on-one meals.

In Germany, they offer themselves little pigs adorned with Cupid's wings, which symbolize desire and luck, but also big heart-shaped cookies carrying messages like "Kiss me".

In Italy, they hang locks on bridges, screens and poles and throw the key to declare their love.

In Denmark, they send each other "lover's cards" enhanced with rhymes or a funny little message, by signing by points, at the rate of one point per letter of the name of the anonymous sender. And when a woman manages to guess who her secret admirer is, she gets an Easter egg.

In Colombia, Costa Rica and Mexico, people are doing something to show their appreciation, rather than giving gifts.

In Argentina, during the Sweet Week, in July, people offer sweets in exchange for a kiss.

In Malaysia, single women write their phone number on an orange that they throw into the river. The fruit vendors fish them and resell them.

In South Africa, women wear their hearts on their sleeve, pinning the name of their secret love. This age-old tradition originated with Roman soldiers.

In Catalonia, there is the Sant Jordi on April 23, when men offer a rose to women and women a book to men.

(Picture source)

(Text source)

(Text source)

I wish you all a Happy Valentine's Day and wish singles to find their half in 2018.