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Gourmet Chocolate Truffles

*Romantic Cookies and Sweets*


Personalized Conversation Heart

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Red Rose Bouquet

Valentine Love Cookies

Indulgence Chocolate

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When is Valentine’s Day?as

Celebrate Valentine’s Day 2007 on February 14, Wednesday

The romantic festival of Valentine’s Day is celebrated on February 14 every year in several countries around the world including UK, US, France, Canada, Australia, Italy and India. The date of Valentine’s Day festival owes its origin to the Romans in pagan times, which celebrated Feast of Lupercalia in mid-February. A day before the Feast of Lupercalia, on February 14, Romans observed a holiday to honor Juno – the Queen of Roman Gods and Goddesses. The Romans also regarded Juno as the Goddess of Women and Marriage. Later, when Christian church decided to put an end to pagan celebrations the priests moved Lupercalia from February 15 to February 14. Around 498 AD, Pope Gelasius declared February 14 as St. Valentine’s Day to honor the martyr Valentinus the patron saint of love and lovers who was martyred on February 14 about 270 AD.

Some scholars says that Valentine’s Day date of February 14 comes from the popular belief in England and France during Middle Ages that February 14 marked the beginning of birds mating season. This popular notion is also said to have contributed towards association of Valentine’s Day with love and romance.

The only exceptions to popular Valentine’s Day date of 14th February are Japan and China. In Japan, Valentine’s Day festival is celebrated for two days. On February 14, girls give chocolates to their boyfriends or men close to them while on March 14 called White Day, boys pamper their girlfriend or special women in their lives by treating them with flowers or other gifts of love.

In China, Valentine’s Day festival is celebrated on the 7th day of the 7th lunar month in the Chinese Calendar. For this reason, Valentines Day is also known as ‘Festival of the Double Sevens’ or Qi Xi – ‘The Night of Sevens’. The unique date of the festival traces its origin from the popular Chinese legend related to the seventh daughter of Emperor of heaven who married a handsome cowherd, Niu Lang. The two were separated and turned into stars but were allowed to meet once a year on the 7th day of 7th lunar month.

Valentine’s Day History

Valentine’s Day celebration dates back to the ancient times when the ‘Feast of Lupercal’ was celebrated in the honour of the Roman God of Fertility. This day falls on the 15th of February every year. According to a time worn custom, on the eve of Lupercalia (14th of Feb) a ritual of ‘name drawing’ was followed, during which a young man drew the name of a girl from the lot, who was to be his sweetheart for the whole year. Romance, has, of course always made the world go round but we must say that these Romans knew how to make it official. Since then, this day (14th of Feb) has been considered as the day of Cupid, the mischievous son of Venus -the Roman Goddess of Love. Lovers through the ages have taken this day as their own – a day to celebrate the finest human emotion. The reason for celebration is ageless, but it was much later that a great lover gave the day his name.

The eternal lover that gave us the famous word ‘Valentine’ and originated the tradition of writing love letters on this day, is believed to be Bishop Valentine. He was a priest in Rome when, the city was ruled by ‘Claudius the Cruel’. Inspite of the fact that Claudius had forbidden Christian conversions and Christian marriages, the Bishop refused to surrender to Roman Gods and carried on his religious duties in secret. He was imprisoned for disobedience, but even in prison he converted the convicts. While he was in prison, the jailer’s daughter became his friend and was loyal to him through his ordeal. When Claudius came to know that imprisonment had not broken his enduring Christian spirit, the bishop was executed. However, on the day of his death Valentine wrote a note to his friend, ‘the jailer’s daughter’ and signed it – ‘From Your Valentine’. This great man who died for his beliefs, for his enduring love of the Christian God, was chosen as the patron Saint of lovers. 14th February has since been celebrated as Valentine’s Day. Romantic souls all over the world have preferred to focus on the romantic twist of this tale, the story of the man who united lovers in the holy bond of marriage; a man who loved his jailer’s daughter and started the tradition of writing love notes.

Valentine’s Day Traditions

Beautiful festival of Valentine’s Day is celebrated with much enthusiasm in countries around the world. Celebrating the festival in a traditional manner, people express love for their beloved and honor them with Valentine’s Day gifts like flowers, cards, chocolates or other special gifts of love.

Going for Dates

To mark the festival of love people go out on dates with their loved ones and enjoy time together. One can see malls, parks, restaurants, pubs, discotheques etc thronged by love birds keen on celebrating Valentine’s Day in a memorable way. Some people also organize Valentine’s Day bashes in their home where they invite their friends for a romantic evening.

Those who have still not expressed love for their beloved take opportunity of this romantic day and declare love for their sweetheart. Many people also chose to get engaged on St Valentine’s Day.

Platonic Celebration of Valentine’s Day

Though Valentine’s Day has always been associated with romantic love, in present times, people see the festival in much larger perspective and celebrate love in all its manifestations. Taking opportunity of the day, people exchange Valentine’s Day greetings with their parents, siblings, friends, teachers, coworkers or any one close to their heart.

Valentine’s Day Celebrations in Schools

In some countries Valentine’s Day is also celebrated in schools. Children exchange handmade cards and chocolates with their class-mates. Special programmes are also organized where children sing and dance.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 8th, 2007 at 9:30 am and is filed under Interesting Stuff. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.