Every youngster these days celebrates Valentine Day in school and college. Cards and flowers are exchanged, and people ask “Will you be my Valentine?”
But, what is the actual story behind Valentine’s day? Why it is celebrated? Are we even celebrating it correctly?
History says that Valentine’s Day is celebrated on the death anniversary of a Roman saint called Valentine. He was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. During this time, there was no culture of marriage or family, it long term relationships. The culture at the time was to have short term relationships and not to have families. One of the reasons for this was the Roman King Claudius. He believed that single men made better soldiers. Saint Valentine did not agree with King Claudius. So, he started preaching a culture of marriage and family life. He used to officiate marriages for young lovers in secret.
Someone once asked Saint Valentine why he was against Claudius, and why he supported marriage and family. He then replied that he was much inspired by Eastern philosophy that venerated these institutions. He also realised that Claudius was doing an injustice to people in his society.
When Valentine’s actions were discovered by Claudius, he put the saint to death. Later, after Claudius’ death, Valentine’s followers and the couples who got married because of him started celebrating Valentine’s Day.
So, if someone asks “Will you be my Valentine?” it might indirectly mean “Will you marry me?“.
After the spread of Christianity and modern Western culture, this culture of marriage and family life was converted into new expressions of love—greeting cards and flowers. And we Indians unthinkingly follow this western tradition without knowing the truth behind it. If we look at it, we Indians don’t even need to celebrate Valentine’s Day, because we all know the importance of marriage in Indian culture.