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Photo: K.R. Deepak

Everlasting bond A day to celebrate the spirit of love

The origins of Valentine’s Day are lost in the intricacies of time. St. Valentine’s Day contains vestiges of both Christian and ancient Roman traditions. The Catholic Church recognises at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom were martyred.

One legend contends that Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he outlawed marriage for young men. Valentine, realising the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to secretly perform marriages for young lovers. When Valentine’s actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death.

According to another legend, Valentine actually sent the first ’valentine’ greeting himself. While in prison, it is believed that Valentine fell in love with a young girl - who may have been his jailor’s daughter, who visited him during his confinement. Before his death, it is alleged that he wrote her a letter, which he signed ‘From your Valentine,’ an expression that is extensively used today. By the Middle Ages, Valentine was one of the most popular saints in England and France and now across the world.

Here’s a day that commodifies ‘love’ with well-oiled gimmicks from greeting card companies, coffee houses, or hotels. A look at the popular gift stores or regular hangouts will bear testimony to this once-a-year mush that pervades the city. The gift shops in the city are all decked up in a colour red mode with an assortment of articles waiting to be picked up and sent off with a love note. It is a matter of proving your love in a way as unique as possible and to impress your beloved.

However, this trend has seen a change over the years. “Now V-Day is not just about lovers exchanging gifts. It’s a celebration of every relationship,” feels proprietor of Archies Gallery Mohan Rao. This year Archies have brought out 800 designs of greetings cards of various sizes. The Archies Valentine girl and Valentine boy pair has become an instant hit.

At Darling’s Paradise, flashing roses with the recorded message of ‘I Love You’, chocolate roses and the red velvety feather roses are the highlights. The shop has more than 500 varieties of cards with a special attraction of a cute neck-chain greeting card. For all those planning a quiet evening out with their loved ones, the city hotels have lined up many programmes. Hotel Taj has planned a gala buffet dinner at Lawson’s Lounge. There will be a delicious range of delicacies and heart shaped desserts that can be relished along with some soft romantic music. Park Hotel will be dishing out a romantic evening at the Aqua that will be festooned with everything red. The menu will be based on aphrodisiacs with yummy starters like chocolate-coated strawberry followed by an elaborate main course and a host of mouth-watering desserts like chocolate mousse and gateaux with peach gelato and Irish cream.

Friends Sreelatha and Rani are too excited about the day. “Love is the most natural feeling. And in a world which is plagued by violence and hatred, what’s wrong in celebrating a day for the noble emotion called love?” they say.

While many wait for the V-Day to declare their love for their beloved, there are others who view this as a post-modern cultural phenomenon that just shrinks the status of the noble feeling of love to a single day in a year. Aditya, working in a BPO categorically states he does not believe in it. “I don’t see any sense in wasting time giving roses or cards to someone on one day when you just might decide you hate the person the next!” All said and done, here’s a feeling that is difficult to dodge. For as the humorist, Jerome K. Jerome once wrote, “Love is like the measles; we all have to go through it.”

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