Valentines Special
Source Article:
http://www.thenewstribe.co.uk/2011/02/valentine%E2%80%99s-day-christian-or-love-day-2/
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On this Valentine what you are going to give to your loved one? Valentine is a time, to be merry and deepening your love every passing year. But it does not mean that you showers your love just to your loved ones. Never forget those who work for you in a special way in your routine life. If you are an office goer, it would be a wonderful idea to express your love to colleagues on this day. You can make the day actually special for all those who do efforts for you but find nothing in return. Whether he or she is your newspaper boy, your plumber, your doctor, your housemaid, postman or pizza delivery person, you can give gift hampers or do something special for them.
The smile you get in return will make that moment really meaningful. It would also make your relationships stronger. All over the world, this day is celebrated with zeal and zest in different ways. Today, Valentine’s Day is one of the celebrated holidays in the U.S. and has become a flourishing commercial sensation.
February has long been a month of relation. It is the month connected with Valentine’s Day partying. The story of St. Valentine has two different versions: the Protestant and the Catholic one. Both versions have same opinion upon Saint Valentine being a bishop who used to secretly conduct marriage ceremonies of soldiers in opposition to Claudius II who had banned marriage for young men at that and the violator was punished to death.
During the life span of Valentine, the golden era of Roman Empire had almost come to an end. It was really a dreadful time, lack of quality administrators led to civil conflict. The Roman Empire faced disasters from all sides, from the Gauls, Slavs, Huns, Turks and Mongolians to Northern Europe and Asia.
Unsurprisingly, more and more skilled men were must to be recruited as soldiers and officers to protect the nation from adversaries. When Claudius became the emperor, his opinion was that marriage made the men weak and they got psychology attached with their families and did not become good soldier. So he decreed forbidding marriages in the empire to manage the quality soldiers for the forces.
This announcement was a great shock for the Romans; but they dare not to raise a voice against their Emperor. The kindhearted bishop Valentine also realized the injustice of the decree. He saw the distress of young lovers who lose all hopes of being united in marriage. Then he made a secret plan to unite them. Whenever lovers decided to tie the knot, they went to Valentine who secretly performed many marriages for young lovers.
But as usually happens, this wasn’t remained out of sight for long. When Claudius came to know of this “friend of lovers”, he ordered his arrest.
During his prision, Valentine was approached by his jailor, Asterius. It was said that Valentine had some saintly abilities and one of them established that he had the power to make people well. Asterius, who had a blind daughter and a believer of the amazing powers of Valentine, requested the latter to restore the sight of his blind daughter. The Catholic traditions state that Valentine did this through the vehicle of his sturdy faith, an experience refuted by the Protestant version which agrees with remaining parts of the Catholic version. Whatever the matter is, it appears that Valentine in some way did achieve something to help Asterius’ blind daughter.
For the time being, a profound friendship had been produced between Valentine and Asterius’ daughter. It was really a dreadful news to the young girl that her friend would be executed sooner. It is said that just before his implementation, Valentine asked for a pen and paper from his jailor, and signed a farewell message to her “From Your Valentine,” a phrase that lived ever after.
As per another tale, Valentine fell in love with the daughter of his jailer during his detention. However, this tale does not gain much significance by historians. Valentine is believed to have been executed on February 14, 270 AD.
In the history of Valentine Day, the first commercial Valentine’s Day greeting cards were created in the 1840s by Esther A. Howland of United States. Howland, known as the Mother of the Valentine, designed cards with real lace, ribbons and colorful pictures acknowledged as “scrap.”
One of the initial valentines was sent in 1415 AD by Charles, Duke of Orleans, to his wife during his imprisonment in the Tower of London. The card is now conserved in the British Museum. Thus 14th February became a day for all lovers and Valentine became its Patron Saint. Have a lovely day on Valentine with your loved ones.
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