Valentine Week Special: History and Significance of Valentine’s week celebration in India
Valentine Week is celebrated to commemorate the death anniversary of Saint Valentine
February is pleasant for many reasons. The chilling winter fades away and makes way for the romantic month inducing sheer excitement and lots of promises. The month of love gives a reason for spending time with dear ones, the opportunity to plan the perfect date, pop the question to your beloved and express love. However, there is more to the Valentine Week celebration than what we know. Let’s understand the significance and history of Valentine’s week celebration in India.
History of Valentine’s week
Few people believe that Valentine day is celebrated to commemorate the death anniversary of Saint Valentine who died in February in around 270 AD. Others believe that the Valentine is celebrated because of the church’s attempt to ‘Christianise’ the Roman Lupercalia festival that was dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, along with the Roman founders of Remus and Romulus.
The story says that the celebrations included men picking names of women from a box and expressing their love for them during the festival. Sometimes this also ended up as marriage for many couples.
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By the end of the 5th century, Pope Gelasius chose the time of Lupercalia celebrations as the date to pay homage to Saint Valentine, thus leading to the association of Valentine’s Day with love and romance.
Who was Saint Valentine?
Saint Valentine was believed to secretly help the Christian couples in love to get married. Emperor Claudius II beheaded Saint Valentine, as he had prohibited males from getting married because he thought that single men were better and dedicated soldiers. Saint Valentine is believed to not support this idea and therefore, facilitated weddings of people who were in love and decided to marry.
Significance of Valentine’s Week
Valentine’s week celebrate companionship and love. The celebrations start a week before Valentine’s Day with Rose Day when people express their love by giving roses to each other. It is followed by Purpose day when lovers pop the question. Then comes Chocolate day where the love is celebrated by sharing chocolates. It is then followed by Teddy Day, which couples use to exchange teddies as a symbol of love. The next two days are Hug Days and Kiss Days. And finally, Valentine ’s Day is celebrated on 14th of February.
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