Valentine's Day - a day which conjures up images of love, togetherness, closeness, fondness and feelings.......eagerly looked forward by lovers the world over, regardless of the barriers of age.
It's the day when lovers especially the youth go all out to express their love for each other...in more ways than one. By giving their Valentine gifts like flowers, chocolates, cards,or simply being in the company of each other.
Most prefer to go for movies, or hang out at cosy hideouts, or nestle in nosy corners where they are ogled or stared at...(a fact which finds mention in my book 'A Midsummer's Love Tale')
Coming back to the topic of love......I wish people would leave two lovers alone....it's criminal to destroy any person's happiness - more so of people spreading and professing their love.....after all love is a rare commodity....especially true love. If two people are finding ways of exploring love the least we could do is to leave them alone.
The history and story of Valentine and how it started is even more strange, yet sad; It's based in the third century in Rome. Saint Valentine was a priest who used to solemnize marriages in Rome which was ruled by Emperor Claudius.
The emperor was anti marriage and passed a law to that effect, as he felt more people would volunteer to join the army if they weren't married.
Nobody supported this crazy law, and neither did St.Valentine. He secretly got the willing couples married off.
One night while getting one such loving couple secretly married he was caught and sentenced to death. There was tremendous revolt amongst the people who chanted slogans in his support, threw flowers towards his prison window, and generally lined up to meet him in jail.
The prison guard who was guarding him had a beautiful daughter who used to come to jail to meet St. Valentine, and had taken a liking for him. She used to come and sit for hours in the jail with him, bolster up his spirits and agreed with his views of opposing the Emperor.
On the day St. Valentine was to die, he wrote a note for his secret lady love and sympathizer before he was executed, which read, - 'Love from your Valentine'.
This note started the festival of exchanging love messages and cards all over the world. The day it was written was 14th February 269 - AD.
The love notes are an expression of love, friendship, hope and anger against people like the Emperor Claudius, who opposed love. Even today, when two people in love want to meet, there are several roadblocks standing in their way.
Down with Claudius and Cheers for St. Valentine
Keep loving, keep living, keep enjoying this day.....
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