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Valentine’s Day

Feb 14, 2010 Editorial

Across great swathes of the globe, millions of pounds of chocolate and millions of roses – not to mention a billion cards – will be exchanged today between men and women to signify their love and affection for each other. It is “Valentine’s Day”.
Most of the giving is done by the men, even though in Japan by a fluke of an old advertising typo, females have been awarded that honour.
Love, it has been said, makes the world go around and how can one have a problem with a day dedicated towards the promotion of love. But like most institutions, it may be worthwhile to examine the origins of Valentine’s Day to discern exactly what value we are celebrating and what are its effects on other values and practices.
First and foremost, Valentine’s Day as we know it today is entwined with the spread of Christianity across Europe from the ruins of the Roman Empire. But just as critical was its confluence with the flowering of romantic love at two critical junctures in European history.
In the Christian strand there have been a veritable host of individuals named Valentine who were martyred but three were canonised and related to February 14 on the General Roman Calendar by Pope Gelasius I in 496 AD.
In one legend “St Valentine was persecuted as a Christian and interrogated by Roman Emperor Claudius II in person. Claudius was impressed by Valentine and had a discussion with him, attempting to get him to convert to Roman paganism in order to save his life. Valentine refused and tried to convert Claudius to Christianity instead.
Because of this, he was executed. Before his execution, he is reported to have performed a miracle by healing the blind daughter of his jailer.” By 1969, research had confirmed the tenuousness of the relationship between the date and the saint(s) so that the Church removed that day from its Calendar and declared: “”Though the memorial of Saint Valentine is ancient, it is left to particular calendars, since, apart from his name, nothing is known of Saint Valentine except that he was buried on the Via Flaminia on February 14.” So much for the religious sanction.
The first connection between St Valentine’s Day and romantic love was made by the early English poet, Geoffrey Chaucer, in his poem “Parliament of Foules” in the year 1382 to honour the first anniversary of the engagement of King Richard II of England to Anne of Bohemia. In the succeeding efflorescence of the Romantic tradition of the Court, the connection was strengthened and embellished by succeeding poets and writers such as Shakespeare and John Donne. The next burst of embroidery onto the connection was in the throes and aftermath of the Romantic Period in the nineteenth century when poets such as Wordsworth and Shelly etc. gave expression and pride of place of feelings such as love over the cold rationality of the preceding Age of Enlightenment. Cards were produced at this time, along with suggested verses that could be used to express one’s sentiment for the “beloved” on Valentine’s Day. The establishment and expansion of the postal service at the same time offered a whole new vista to the enterprise.
The Romantic Movement also spread to the US as did the innovation of the cards. The Americans, with their unique perspective on the opportunities for commerce centred on human social interactions, took Valentine’s Day to a whole new level. The birth of a “greeting card” industry was heralded. The spread of Empire at this time by the Europeans – especially the British – gave the new custom a wider berth. And so we have Valentine’s Day in Guyana – a mixture of British sentimentality about romantic love and the cold calculus of American entrepreneurship.
Our concern about what has been called the “commodification” of human relationships – especially in the last half-a-century – has been the easy way out that is offered by the exchange of gifts on a single day to solidify what should be the daily and sustained efforts that are necessary to build relationships between individuals.
So there is nothing wrong to celebrate Valentine’s Day – just fill every other day with the same sentiments and actions for your beloved. Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!!

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