VALENTINE DAY- RADIO TALK

 VALENTINE DAY- RADIO TALK

February is a month that heralds new hope for the world in its expression of love, love and more love. This festival of love falls on February 14 every year and is widely celebrated by people of all ages. 

One of the best facts associated with this festival is that it celebrates love in all its forms and is not just restricted only to romantic love. 

Hence, people celebrate this day by presenting Valentine's Day gifts to their parents, teachers, siblings, friends, sweethearts or anyone special or close to them. Exchanging cards with sentimental verses, flowers and gifts is the most common way to express this love.

There are several legends associated with Valentine Day. 

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, realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When Valentine's actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death and he was beheaded on 14th February. 

Another story suggests that Valentine may have been killed for attempting to help Christians escape harsh Roman prisons where they were often beaten and tortured. While in prison, it is believed that Valentine fell in love with a young girl, the 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 still in use today.

While some believe that Valentine's Day is celebrated in the middle of February to commemorate the anniversary of Valentine's death or burial, others claim that the Christian church may have decided to celebrate Valentine's feast day in the middle of February in an effort to 'christianize' celebrations of the pagan Lupercalia festival which began at the ides of February, February 15 and was a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, as well as to the Roman founders Romulus and Remus. 

To begin the festival, members of the Luperci, an order of Roman priests, would gather at the sacred cave where the infants Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, were believed to have been cared for by a she-wolf or lupa. The priests would then sacrifice a goat, for fertility, and a dog, for purification. The boys then sliced the goat's hide into strips, dipped them in the sacrificial blood and took to the streets, gently slapping both women and fields of crops with the goathide strips. Far from being fearful, Roman women welcomed being touched with the hides because it was believed the strips would make them more fertile in the coming year. 

Later in the day, according to legend, all the young women in the city would place their names in a big urn. The city's bachelors would then each choose a name out of the urn and become paired for the year with his chosen woman. These matches often ended in marriage. 

Pope Gelasius declared February 14 St. Valentine's Day around 498 A.D. The Roman 'lottery' system for romantic pairing was deemed un-Christian and outlawed. Later, during the Middle Ages, it was commonly believed in France and England that February 14 was the beginning of birds' mating season, which added to the idea that the middle of February, Valentine's Day, should be a day for romance.

There were some quaint customs that emerged as a result of these legends. For e.g., in the Middle Ages, young men and women drew names from a bowl to see who their valentines would be. They would wear these names on their sleeves for one week. To wear your heart on your sleeve now means that it is easy for other people to know how you are feeling.

In Wales, around the seventeenth century, wooden love spoons were carved and given as gifts on February 14th. Hearts, keys and keyholes were favourite decorations on the spoons. The decoration meant, "You unlock my heart!"

By the middle of the eighteenth century, it was common for friends and lovers to exchange small tokens of affection or handwritten notes. By the end of the century, printed cards began to replace written letters. Americans probably began exchanging hand-made valentines in the early 1700s.

In the 1840s, Esther A. Howland began to sell the first mass-produced valentines in America. Known as the Mother of the Valentine, she made elaborate creations with real lace, ribbons and colorful pictures known as "scrap".

For lovers of romance, Valentine Day is that special day of magic when they can express the desire of their hearts and accept with gladness the response that they look forward to. 

During our years of courtship, I recall how avidly I would search for just the right card to give my husband on Valentine Day. The words had to convey that deep longing to be in his arms, the symbolic artwork on the front to seal the promise that I would be his forever. Even after we were married, I would break my little head as early as January to try and figure out what to do to set my husband aflame on D-day. 

One year, I decided to give him the triple thrill of his life. So when the rooster was having his 40 winks, I awoke and stuck two paper hearts on my hubby’s shaving mirror with the words “You fascinate me.” Knowing that his next move, after brushing those pearly whites, would be to get the milk out of the fridge, I stuck another message on the front of the fridge door, which read “My heart beats for you.” The third I hid in the shallow dish he uses for kneading the dough. What I wrote there was meant for his ears only. Anyway, the end result was a glorious Valentine Day.

Often, Valentine Day is chosen as the day to propose, marry or even have a baby. A friend of mine who worked as a librarian told me of the unique way that her husband proposed to her. After two years of dating her, he showed up on V-day and started rummaging through her desk at the library. She asked him what he was looking for but he wouldn’t answer. Finally he unearthed one of the rubber stamps she used to identify books. He said with a grin on his handsome countenance, “Since I couldn’t find the right engagement ring, this will have to do.” Then he firmly stamped her hand. Across the knuckles, in capital letters it read, “NOT FOR CIRCULATION.”

The most touching Valentine Day Message I read some years ago went like this - “You mean the world to me, you are the whole world to me. You are my past, present, future, mine forever. You held me in your womb and in your arms. You brushed away my tears, kept me from harm. You are my goddess my lovely loving lovable Mama.”

For those of you interested in baking, I end with a Valentine cake recipe especially for you to gift your loved one this year. Take 4 cups of love, 3 cups of commitment, 4 tbsps of caring and 3 tsps of helpfulness. Mix these thoroughly, add appropriate amounts of work and play, season with security and mutual planning and then place it in a well-greased pan with a sense of humour. When the cake is done, top it off with a thick coating of true spirituality and serve on a platter garnished with rosy smiles.

Remember to let the festivities of Valentine day carry on all through the year, for love begets more love and the more you love the more you will be able to love. Have a splendid Valentine day!

(This was aired on Feb 13 at 8.15 pm on Medium wave band at 233.1 metres corresponding to 1287 KHz.)