Today is 14th of February as per the Gregorian Calendar, which is celebrated all over the world as Valentine’s day( or St. Valentine’s Day). People celebrate this day of love and sacrifice with their loved ones, mostly their romantic partners, since it was for two lovers only that St. Valentine had sacrificed himself and became a martyr.
Today is the day when people in love with each other celebrate their love , those who are secretly in love with others share their feelings with the special ones, and those who are not in relationship but want to be, either pass the day normally, or just feel jealous of the lovebirds( which is not a good thing and a person should not do, as pointless jealousy often drives a person mad and make them do unspeakable sins). And many people who believe in the general meaning of love, celebrate the day with friends, colleagues and parents as a day to celebrate love.
Obviously love is not uni-dimensional. Neither this day is about a particular aspect of love. but it is about loving each and every creation of God.Our parents, our friends and siblings, our nation, the whole humanity, our mother Earth. But apart from them, this day is also about loving and caring for that person whom God( or whatever Operating system or master Algorithm is responsible for the creation and propagation of the multiverse) has sent to Earth as our fellow partner, as our fellow warrior in the battle of life, as our soulmate.
Nowadays, people either do not know or just forget the significance of this day. In place of celebrating love, this day has just become a tool for corporates to make money by selling Valentine day themed products. Such soulless corporatization of such a holy festival makes us wonder, why do we have a separate day to celebrate love? We already celebrate the love and prosperity as Spring festivals across different cultures, like we celebrate Basant Panchmi in India.
So, why we need Valentine’s Day in today’s time?
We need Valentine’s day because we need to remind ourselves that people across continents, across cultures and across time have sacrificed themselves for the sake of love. To remind ourselves about the story and sacrifice of St.Valentine who helped young couples in love getting married in Rome, where the marriage of Young men was banned(so that young men can serve better in the army, they can kill themselves in war without any sense of attachment). Valentine went against this, & so he was imprisoned & executed. And in this way, he sacrificed himself for the sake of love.
Thus in the true sense, Valentine’s Day is the day to remember those martyrs who sacrificed themselves for the sake of love. And we have many such martyrs among us, many such warriors of love among us. The day to remember the heroes who took the ultimate risk to save someone’s love.
- To remember the sacrifice of those people, who helped couples get a new life and saved them from evils like ‘Honour Killing’, but themselves got martyred in the process.
- To the numerous Policemen & policewomen, who sheltered consenting couples belonging to different communities from their violent and unwilling family members.
- To remember those soldiers, who always protect our borders, living away from their loved ones, so that those who are in love can live happily ever after.
- The lists of the ‘warriors of love’ is very large, and almost everyone who works or sacrifice themselves for greater good of all and against walls of pointless hatred can be included in this list.
In today’s world, when illogic, bigotry and evil is rising its head again, when the walls of hatred in the name of caste, creed, colour, region, religion are becoming more strong, the power of selfless and borderless love needs to be reaffirmed. People who risks themselves in order to save the love of others must be reassured that their sacrifice is not going into vain.
Whenever the darkness of hatred rises to its maximum, the light of love emerges from its womb only, the the evil of hatred is dissipated in the brightness of love.
So to all those who are in love or who have vowed to protect those in love, may the Almighty God bless you and give all of you strength. Yes, its true enemies of love and Agents of hatred are roaming free everywhere, but you must remain strong, safe and careful. And remember, you are not alone.