Valentines Day

Month : February
Place : Worldwide
Famous For : Traditional & Love Festival
Attractions : Love Confessions, Greting Cards, Exchange of , Day of Lovers.

Valentines day or St. Valentines day falls on February 14 every year. This is one of the most awaited days among all occasions that celebrate relationships. Since, this involves one of the most beautiful and intriguing of all human emotions, love. It is because of this fact alone that Valentine's day has mysterious yet alluring undertone to it. There are many things that build up on this fascination that we have with such aspects of love and Valentines day.

Valentines Day is a beautiful occasion that speaks of love and romance. All of us want to do something different and special for our loved ones on this day. These are only some of valentines day gift ideas that are sure to please you and your Valentine. People therefore exchange Valentine's Day greetings with their parents, teachers, siblings, friends, sweethearts or anyone special or close to them. The commonest way of expressing love on Valentine's Day is through exchanging cards, flowers and chocolates.

Valentine's Day History and Legends

Valentines day has evolved from a day that honors Saint Valentine to a day that is relevant for the feelings of love, from the passionate desire and intimacy of romantic love. The romantic festival of Valentine's Day is said to have originated in pagan times in Rome when people celebrated annual fertility festival called Feast of Lupercalia in mid-February. A unique custom of the festival was the mating of young boys and girls for a year through a lottery system. Quite often the couple would fall in love and marry.

During the 3rd century a priest by the name of Valentine, under Claudius II in Rome, secretly disobeyed the law. Claudius had come to believe that a single soldier was a better soldier than a married young man and so decided to outlaw marriage in order to have plenty young strong men with no wives at his disposal. Valentine, the priest, did not obey this law and continued to celebrate the holy bond of marriage for young couples in secrecy. Of course, the way it always works with secret clauses, he was caught and sent to his death. The second legend believes that Valentine was a prisoner who fell in love with a young woman, who came to see him often. It is believed that she was his jailors daughter. Before his untimely death he wrote her a love letter, signed with "Your Valentine". There fore the phrase "Be my Valentine". Some believe he was beheaded, others thought that he died of sickness. No one is even sure if 14 February was the day of his birth or his death or if it had indeed anything to do with Saint Valentine at all. The only thing that is for sure, is that the Romans had a tradition in the middle of February, which would mark the 14th, called the Love Lottery. It was believed that spring and with it the renewal of life came along in the middle of February, therefore the love lottery was held, coupling young men and women for one year, often leading to marriage.

By Middle Ages, Saint Valentine became the patron saint of love and lovers in England and France. In 498 AD, when Pope Gelasius decided to put an end to pagan celebration of Feast of Lupercalia, he declared that 14th February be celebrated as St Valentine's Day.

Valentine's Day Celebration

Valentine's Day is the day for celebration of love. Love, a very generic term is relative to any of a number of emotions that speak of affection and attraction. This word can refer to a variety of different feelings, states, and attitudes, ranging from faint pleasure to a feeling of strong interpersonal attachment. Valentine's day is also the day of making fresh promises of love and of keeping true to those promises you made at an earlier date.