February - a month of love

February is a very special month. It is a month of love. There are a lot of sweet things like hearts of plush, candles, toys in the shops. Usually, people are very kind and show special regard to each other on these days: walk to restaurants, gift candies to each other, kiss. All this happens just because of the Saint Valentine. Who was the famous Valentine? Why so many centuries’ people celebrate Saint Valentine’s Day?

A legend tells that the Saint Valentine was a priest who lived in the third century in Rome. Emperor Claudius II decided that single men are better warriors than those who are married. So, emperor forbade young men to marry. Valentine thought that this law was unfair. Priest married young couples secretly. When emperor found out about that, he sentenced Valentine to death.

Opponents say that Saint Valentine’s Day is not the anniversary of priest’s Valentine’s death. It is said that the festival is celebrated because Christian church wants to “Christianize” pagan festivals. February was the official beginning of the spring in ancient Rome. All people cleaned their houses and dusted salt and wheat everywhere. The festival of fertilization sacred to Faun - the god of husbandry took place after that. People were lashed with whips - it was one of the traditions of this festival. Women experienced lashing too, because it was believed that they will be prolific after this ceremony. Legend tells that women wrote their names on the cards and threw to the urn. Men drew one of those cards from the urn and they became a couple for one year with that woman which name was written on the card. Most of those couples married later. The church criticized this lottery. It was believed in the Middle Ages that tread of birds happened on February. Maybe because of this conviction February became the month of love.

There is also another story. The man called Valentine felt in love with a woman when he was in a prison. It is believed that she was a daughter of a warder. She often visited the prisoner. Valentine wrote a letter to his love before the death. At the end of the letter he wrote “Your Valentine”. This phrase got round between all lovers.

The idea of Saint Valentine’s Day is very nice and symbolic, but nowadays people don’t know what love is - they just don’t have time for that. This festival became banal and commercial. People buy hearts of plush, send banal and monotonous poems to each other, or just go to some restaurant or night club. Some people begin to show special attention to their partners on that day. But this is not right. You have to show attention during the year and on the Saint Valentine’s Day you just have to reward your partner that he spent all this time beside you. The reward has to be special too - straight from your heart. It doesn’t have to be a material present. Maybe you should create a poem, make a vow or just honestly talk about the time you spent together.

by Ruta