Valentine's Day- a condensed history
Ahemm... Hello!
Happy Valentine's day, my friends! Today I relax a bit la... not using so proper English in this blog post...
I would like to tell you the story of how come there is this thing called Valentine's Day.
Many many years ago in Imperial Rome, the 14th of February was celebrated as the day for Juno (Jupiter's Wife/Zeus's wife) the Goddess of Women and Marriage.
Last time no picture-message enabled handphone and shopping malls to go to and check out leng-lui wearing kitty cat costume (... dunno what I toking about? watch more TV lor! Hotlink commercial). So what happen is, people only get to ber-dating during the Feast of Lupercalia. Apa itu? Like the Goddess Juno got birthday, so on the 15th of February the people throw her a party lor. Faham?
Anyway apparently this Goddess like people to ber-dating on her birthday, so the girls put their names into a box and then the guys go and pick the names from the box, and then find the girl they picked and date her for the Feast of Lupercalia.
So this tradition went on, and many a time, these young couples eventually got married. Why so easy get married one??? Because last time no co-ed school... so the guys don't get to mingle with girls except during the Feast of Lupercalia. So perhaps they terdesak... desperate.. so kahwin lor.
But then came this big shot emperor named Claudius II who not so romantic one. He don't like people get married so easily coz all he like to do is perang with people... and a lot of his soldiers got girlfren, so they all no mood to perang for him. So he made stupid law to make the lovers so difficult to kahwin then a lot of lovers bo shiok with him.
And then this Christian priest named Valentine came along. He was super romantic. What he did was, those sad couples who cannot kahwin one, he go and help them to kahwin secretly. So now the Emperor Claudius bo shiok with this Valentine lor.
In the end, in 269 AD, Emperor Claudius II went and got this Valentine arrested and then he executed him on the 14th of February. Many many years later, the Catholic church made Valentine a Saint Valentine.
A lot of people start to call February 14 St. Valentine's Day.... but maybe this makes the Goddess Juno very angry, because no one celebrate her birthday anymore... everyone now kenal this Valentine only...
So sad for Juno hor?
Okay... fast forward .......
1800 this American woman called Esther Howland want to make money, so she started selling Valentine's day card....
then fast forward summore..
All over the world February 14 become very expencif day la. Flower also mahal, dinner mahal, teddy bear mahal. Semua pun mahal! Right???
Okay.. now the serious bit:
Minus the American input to the story of Valentine's day, Valentine's Day is a time when all young people should reflect on love. What is love? What does it mean to be in love? What are the many kinds of love? How best to love others? How best to be loved? Etc. etc. etc.
The moral of the story? I dunno.. you tell me.. thats what the comments are for.. hehe.
One thing we can learn is this: American woman start to commercialise this.. make poor kid like me lagi poor. Sob sob..
Happy Valentine's day again... and please reflect on LUURVE!