Nuren Sharara Saif :Saint Valentine’s Day, also known as Valentine’s Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is observed on February 14 every year. It is celebrated in many countries around the world, although it remains a working day in most of them.Several martyrdom stories were invented for the various Valentines that belonged to February 14, and added to later the life of martyrs. A popular story on the account of Saint Valentine of Rome, states that he was imprisoned for performing weddings of soldiers who were forbidden to marry for ministering of Christians, who were persecuted under the roman empire. According to legend, during his imprisonment, he healed the daughter of his jailer, Asterius. A decorative detail of this story states that before his execution he wrote her a letter signed Your Valentine as a farewell. Today, Saint Valentine’s Day is an official feast day through out almost the whole world.The day was first associated with romantic love in the 18th-century in England it evolved into an occasion in which lovers expressed their love for each other by presenting flowers, offering confectionery and sending greeting cards (known as ‘Valentines’). Valentine’s Day symbols that are used today include the heart shaped outline, doves, and the figure of the winged Cupid. History further states that Saint Valentine was persecuted as a Christian and interrogated by Roman Emperor Claudis II in person. Claudius was impressed by Valentine and had a discussion with him, attempting to get him to convert to Roman Paganism ( A different religion not believing in Christianity) among people instead of Christianity. Valentine refused and tried to convert Claudius to Christianity instead. Because of this, he was re attributed. Before his retribution or punishment, he is reported to have performed a miracle by healing Julia, the blind daughter of his jailer Asterius. The jailer’s daughter and his forty-four member house hold came to believe in Jesus and were baptized. This reason was later added to the pile of reason for which he was punished. There is a further embellishment to this story which was widely repeated later. It is said by history that Saint Valentine used to write letters to his beloved Julia from the dungeon where he was kept for punishment and he used to send those letters to her, through pigeons that used to come by his cell’s window. According to the Roman Emperor’s orders, Valentine was to be killed, and the evening right before his murder which was on February 14, Valentine wrote a love filled card to his jailor’s daughter Julia who was no longer blind signing as Your Valentine at the end of the card. This tradition of being one another’s valentine on February 14 was then adopted by the modern world.One of the many strange and wonderful things about Bangladesh is its celebration of Valentine’s Day. Since it is a conservative and Islam based country.But like so many things, Valentine’s Day in Bangladesh is quite a different experience. In Dhaka, restaurants are very crowded, with Valentine’s special banners hanging outside their windows, along with the groups of young people taking romantic strolls around Dhanmondi lake and various other spots. Valentine’s day is a very romantic day for couples and it is believed to be a day where couples express their feeling of love to their partner verbally and also through various other forms. It has over the years become a very popular day for celebration in a conservative country like Bangladesh where couples take a day off from their busy routine to spend some memorable and romantic time with their loved one and this is a day where couple tend to give their partners gifts and souvenirs. This wide spread of the Valentine’s day through out almost the whole world might seem like a mal practice for many people, especially the fanatic people of various countries, but it definitely is a success for Saint Valentine who took up a lot of hard work to express his love towards Julia, from his dungeon. By seeing this wide spread practice of the tradition his soul would definitely be happy and feel accomplished since his motive was to each the world, that ‘love’ is the strongest power of this universe and that true love is always strong enough to overcome any sort of obstacle and barrier.
