HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY, TTPERS!!
Welcome to TTP’s celebration of Valentine’s Day, 2023!
Today is for celebrating the love and friendship that bless our lives. A day for feeling an infinite gratitude for having love in our hearts and being fortunate enough to have it returned.
It was Pope Gelasius I who, in 496 proclaimed that February 14 would be the feast day of Saint Valentinus of Rome, as he was martyred on that day in 269 on order of Emperor Claudius II for refusing to renounce Christianity.
Almost nine centuries later, England’s greatest poet of the Middle Ages, Geoffrey Chaucer (ca. 1343-1400), created the tradition of Valentine’s Day celebrating romantic love. His 1382 poem, Parlement of Foules (Parliament of Fowls or Birds), depicts Nature convening on February 14 a deliberation or parliament of birds to choose their mates:
“For this was on St. Valentine’s Day, when every bird cometh there to choose his mate.”
It’s been celebrated by English poets ever since, with spreading popularity throughout the English-speaking world from the 1600s on, exchanging Valentine cards expressing love and friendship, accompanied with flowers.
What’s fascinating is how in recent times, Valentine’s Day is celebrated worldwide, and not only in Christian countries like throughout South America. The day is a big deal now in Singapore, Taiwan, and South Korea. In Thailand, couples on Valentine’s Day get their marriage licenses on the back of an elephant –
Countless millions celebrate it in China.
From Ivory Coast to Kenya to Malawi, it’s roses and chocolates on Valentine’s Day all over Africa –
There are a small number of countries that ban Valentine’s Day and they are Islamic, like Malaysia, Pakistan, and of course, Iran –
On the other hand, millions of Moslems from Indonesia to Morocco celebrate this day of love. Recently, Saudi Arabia joined in. Once banned, couples freely celebrate today – with roses like everywhere –
So as you celebrate this day with those you care for, realize that several billion people all over our planet are doing the very same. This is indeed a happy day for the entire world. Happy Valentine’s Day, TTPers!!