PARIS —
Saint Valentine’s Day may now be celebrated worldwide but traditions are often
very different — and sometimes have nothing at all to do with romance.
اضافة اعلان
While in Europe
it’s all about couples cozying up, in the
US it is as much about schoolchildren
celebrating friendship, while in Japan women give chocolates to their bosses.
From pagan
festival to a marketing ploy, we look at the rich Valentine’s mix:
All whipped up
Valentine’s Day was once a rather violent affair. Its origins are
thought to go back to the Roman purification festival of Lupercalia when naked
young men would whip young ladies to make them more fertile.
Down the
centuries that evolved into only slightly less raucous lotteries that paired
young men off with young women at medieval carnivals.
Martyr to his heart
The day is also, of course, associated with the cult of third-century
Roman Christian martyr Saint Valentine.
He literally
lost his head over love — decapitated on the orders of the Emperor Claudius,
they say, for secretly performing weddings.
According to the
legend, Valentine cured his jailer’s blind daughter and the day before his
death slipped her a note signed “Your Valentine”.
Unfortunately,
there was no happy ending.
Love letters
In England the exchange of messages known as “valentines” on February
14 developed with the rise of the postal service in the 19th century, with the
sender often signing off “Your Valentine”.
Love spoons
They did things differently across the border in Wales. Their festival
of love is held on January 25 and celebrates a fourth-century Welsh princess
called Saint Dwynwen.
Unlucky in
love,
broken-hearted Dwynwen sought solace in religion and became a nun, praying for
others to find true love.
Among the gifts
traditionally exchanged between lovers, and would-be ones, are carved Welsh
wooden love spoons.
My darling Galentine
The celebration took a commercial turn in the mid-19th century in the
US, with the invention of mass-produced greeting cards.
Promoters
quickly got the idea to extend the “tradition” beyond lovers, with
schoolchildren now expected to bring a Valentine card for every one of their
classmates.
Today it has
become a $20-billion business and has even spawned Galentines Day, when “gals”
go out together and eat waffles.
Hot choc
The Japanese Valentine tradition began after World War II when
confectionery makers thought up the wheeze of having women offer chocolates to
their bosses and boyfriends on February 14.
A half-century
later, the practice has become an annual ritual, with millions of
Japanese women giving pralines or ganaches to show affection, friendship, or
professional respect.
But not any
chocolate will do. The “giri choco”, for example, are standard chocolates
reserved for work colleagues while the superior “honmei choco” are the sign of
true love.
Not in public
Valentine’s Day is less loved in some parts of the world, however, with
some Muslim countries including
Pakistan, Indonesia,
Malaysia, and Saudi Arabia
taking a dim view.
Although the day
is very popular in Iran, people have to show their affection modestly. The sale
of heart-shaped balloons, for example, is rather frowned upon by
traditionalists.
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