Love is all around

Cassandra Barboza

February 15, 2024

 

What is Valentine’s day and why is it so special?

Valentine’s Day is an annual holiday celebrated in the United States and many other countries around the world. Historically, it has commemorated romantic love, but recently, it’s been expanded to include all types of love. In my own eyes I see Valentine’s day as a celebration of love and friendship combined into one holiday with people celebrating with lovers, family, and with friends as well. It is a very lovely dovey holiday where I believe all people can come together and spend quality time by doing the following activities: going to concerts, going to escape rooms, cooking, pottery, attending painting classes, and going on restaurant dates.

Valentine's Day is most commonly associated with romantic love, with millions of Valentine’s Day cards being exchanged each year. Gifts of flowers or a single red rose are sent with romantic messages to loved ones and couples spend special time together. 

 

 

 

 

 

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The most common explanation for how Valentine’s Day came to be is the ancient festival of Lupercalia, a raucous, wine-fueled fertility rite in which Roman men and women paired off. Lupercalia was celebrated for centuries in the middle of February and eventually, as the Roman Empire became less pagan and more Christian, was transformed into a celebration honoring St. Valentine.z “St.Valentine is known to be a real person who died around A.D. 270. However, his true identity was questioned as early as A.D. 496 by Pope Gelasius I, who referred to the martyr and his acts as “being known only to God.” One account from the 1400s describes Valentine as a temple priest who was beheaded near Rome by the emperor Claudius II for helping Christian couples wed.” Lupercalia survived the initial rise of Christianity but was outlawed as it was deemed “un-Christian” at the end of the 5th century, when Pope Gelasius declared February 14th St. Valentine’s Day. It was not until much later, however, that the day became definitively associated with love. During the Middle Ages, it was commonly believed in France and England that February 14th was the beginning of birds’ mating season, which added to the idea that the middle of Valentine’s Day should be a day for romance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I asked junior Rihanna Ventura about her thoughts on Valentine's Day, she gave me a negative response. Her response to my question on why she dislikes Valentine's Day is that she believes it to be “useless and a waste of time because not everyone can actually celebrate it.” When I asked her if she would ever consider having a Galentine’s Day with her friends she explained to me that she had only recently found out about this alternative to the holiday this year when one of her friends brought it up. She has decided to give Galentine's a try next year. But what is Galentine’s day exactly? Galentine's Day was invented by Leslie Knope, a character portrayed by actress Amy Poehler on Parks & Recreation. The sitcom aired from 2009 to 2015, but the show's legacy lives on in this holiday. In Leslie's words, Galentine's Day is "the best day of the year. Every February 13, my lady friends and I leave our husbands and our boyfriends at home, and we just come and kick it, breakfast style.”