St Valentine’s Day — the occasion when you express your love, openly or anonymously — has come a long way, and is here to stay. Society watchers may continue to debate the relevance of this day to Indian culture, and lament its degeneration into a commercial opportunity, but it has been accepted as a day of romance by urban youth,
says Manpreet Singh.

Figures of cupid, hearts,bows and arrows appear on tin boxes, greeting cards and various confectionery items on St Valentine’s Day, instead of the images of the third-century priest martyred for the sake of Christianity and love. Dances, candle-lit dinners, parties and exchanging flowers, gifts and greeting cards have become synonymous with the day. The date has been excessively commercialised and the real spirit behind it pushed into oblivion.

Hoteliers and florists have jumped onto this business bandwagon that promises unlimited lucre. Says a hotelier, "People have accepted it and this is an opportunity for us to come up with new programmes. We cannot afford to live in isolation."

With a blooming flower trade, florists increase their supply of red roses, popular for their long association with romance. Kalit Dhir, a florist in Chandigarh, says, "Our business has gone up on the Valentine’s Day during the last couple of years. Ninety-nine per cent of them order red roses on the day and most of the customers are youngsters. Last year I got a red roses bouquet order with instructions that it had to be delivered at sharp 12 o’clock on the February 13 night. Such is the craze!"

This festival began to be popularly celebrated in Britain by the 18 century, when friends and lovers would exchange small tokens of affection and handwritten notes. Readymade cards followed with advances in printing technology. With the passage of time the greeting card industry cashed in on such events and witnessed a mammoth growth. The Greet Card Association of America claims that an estimated one billion valentine cards are sent each year, making St Valentine’ Day the second largest card sending holiday of the year, after Christmas. In India, too, the last few years have seen a perceptible increase in enthusiasm for a festival which was not so long ago celebrated only by a handful of teenagers. After the round of New Year’s greeting cards is over, the impatient flutter over valentine greetings begins.

A research scholar of the Department of French, Panjab University, says: "In the early 80s one had to consult the dictionary to find the meaning of Valentine’s Day, but today if you don’t offer a gift, a flower or a Valentine card (which remains the most acceptable), your girlfriend may start looking for a substitute, assuming you don’t care for her." Indeed, such importance has the day gained that one cannot afford to ignore it.

A greeting card manufacturer and distributor of the city says: "Wherever there is youth, love will find means of expression. And Valentine's Day serves as the perfect occasion. We held quizes and organised carnivals on the day to create awareness about it. We expect that this being the millennium’s first Valentine, the sales will be great with the kind of variety we have. It will make youngsters go mad!"

Various greeting card companies have flooded the market with new designs. Says a marketing official of a big greeting card company, "Despite the prices of cards

going up, there has been no let-up in the demand." One company is even planning a yearly ‘Planner for lovers’, beginning the first date with February 14. These companies have been boosting up their sales with various promotional schemes. The new targets are small cities and towns like Ambala, Shahabad, Ropar, Mandi, Solan and Bilaspur.

With increasing competition and sale of cards, the messages conveyed in the cards have been changing too. The simple messages of coy sentimentality have given way to comic, jocular, sarcastic and even vulgar expressions of love.

The journey of St Valentine’s Day is a long story of lost significance. Disappointed by the degeneration of this occasion the world over, Robert Chambers, the Edinburgh autodidact, wrote in 1863: "Valentine’s Day is now almost everywhere a much degenerated festival...sending jocular, anonymous letters to parties whom one wishes to quiz and this is very much confined to the humbler classes." What he would have said in today’s circumstances, one shudders to think.

Father Valentine De Silva laments the degradation of the day into a base business activity, "St Valentine is the patron saint of couples who are engaged or already married. The intention behind sending affectionate message to their partners is to encourage loyalty and love, thus strengthening the conjugal bond. This day is being exploited by the business world, which is not correct."

"The hype of celebrating Valentine’s Day is not only alien but quite absurd too,as those celebrating it hardlyknow its significance or meaning. At best, it’s a creation of media and market economy," says Dr Jitendra Mohan, professor of Psychology in Panjab University. Laughing off the relevance of this festival in Indian culture, he calls it a case of fractured cultural aping. "It’s a pity. Our youth on the one hand consider Mahatma Gandhi as the greatest man of the millennium symbolising simplicity and compassion, and on the other hand the same youth display emotions by gimmicks, which are gainful only to the shopkeepers," he avers.

But lovers will be lovers. They continue to wait for sending valentines and celebrating the ‘romantic day’. The acceptance of the day can be seen in the increasing number of newspaper columns dedicated to valentine messages every year. Like London’s newspapers, now in India too one can see bold, coy, humorous and suggestive valentine messages. These messages are penned from the sharper edges of the heart, indeed!

"Ruhi," reads a message from a stubborn lover, "I love you. Escape me if you can." And thus, the Valentine celebrations go on and on. As the romantic spirits soar, few are bothered about the lost sacred significance of the day.

Tales & tradition

lOpinions vary about the origin of Valentine’s Day. Experts agree that it originated from St. Valentine, a third-century priest who was martyred in Rome, because he refused to give up Christianity.

lAnother story has it that a cruel emperor called Claudius IIbanned all marriages in Rome as he wanted men for his military leagues and he felt that men did not want to leave their loved ones and families. However, St. Valentine secretly married couples in a small candle-lit room with only the bride and groom. He was caught for defying the emperor’s orders, and was later executed. Since then he is considered the patron saint of lovers.

Gradually, February 14 became the day for exchanging love messages. The date was marked for sending poems and gifts, such as flowers and candy.

lWith the passage of time newer interpretations followed. Shakespeare wrote in Midsummer Night’s Dream:

St Valentine is past
Begins these wood birds but
to couple now?

lSt Valentine’s Day is also associated with lovers as it falls a day before the ancient Roman feast Lupercalia. On this occasion young women’s names were written on a paper and put in a jar and drawn by an arrangement by which a young man became the gallant of a woman thus chanced upon, for the next year, or at least became her partner for the festival.

lLove spoons were carved and given as gifts. Hearts, keys and keyholes were favourite decorations on the spoons. The decorations meant, "You unlock my heart!"

lIn the Middle Ages young men and women drew names from a bowl and would wear these names on their sleeves for a week.

lIn some countries, young women received gifts of clothing from young men. If a woman kept the gift, it meant she would marry him.

lSome people believe that if a woman sees a robin flying overhead on St Valentine’s Day, it signifies that she will marry a sailor, if a sparrow, then a poor man but would be very happy, and if a goldfinch, then a millionaire.

lCenturies back, in England, children would dress up as adults on St Valentine’s Day and go singing from house to house.