Bells of Valentine's Day
Every year February 14 is celebrated as Valentine's Day to mark love, romance and affection. People send gifts to their loved ones on this day. In recent years, India has also developed great commercial market for this day.
VALENTINE'S DAY is celebrated in many countries on February 14 as a festival of romance and affection. People send greeting cards called valentines to their sweethearts, friends and members of their families. Many Valentine cards have romantic verses and others contain humorous pictures and sayings. Many say, ‘Be my valentine’. Valentine's Day parties and dances are often held. Many people send flowers, chocolates, or some other gifts to their wives, husbands, girl friends, boy friends or sweethearts. In recent years, India has also developed great commercial market for this day and many hotels, restaurants, bars etc are lavishly decorated for this day. People specially loungers have started to develop the habit of saving big pocket money for this day, to please their friends of opposite gender. All gift shops mint their money by the starting of the month of February.
Commercial Valentines were first made in the early 1800's. Many of them were blank inside, with space for the sender to write a message. The British artist Kate Greenaway became famous for her Valentines in the late 1800's. Many of her cards featured happy children.
Some believe that February 14, is only main festival's eve to celebrate February 15, with great pomp and show. Actually Lupercalia was an important religious festival in ancient Rome. It was celebrated annually on February 15 near the Lupercalia, a cave in the Palatine Hill. According to Roman mythology, a wolf in the Lupercalia nursed the infant twins Romulus and Remus, the legendary founders of Rome. They both were very friendly.
The festival included banquets, dancing and sacrificing of goats. Whips were made from the hides of the sacrificed goats. Two teams of young men called Luperci raced naked around the hill. Women who wanted to have children stood near the path of the runners to be struck by the whips. The Romans believed that a woman struck by a whip would become fertile.
Seeing the Valentine’s Day celebration, I always wonder why don’t we celebrate a day related to social service and people of society should come forward to do something good for goodness and welfare of the society. To utilise the potentiality of youth, society should start youth service clubs, so that they can mix and reciprocate their creative views with each other.
Youth service should be a part of the education service in all societies. Its aim should be to help the young people to enjoy their leisure time and develop their characters by broadening the range of their recreational activities. It should be administered by local education authorities and voluntary organisations that arrange various kinds of group activities for young people. Activities organised by the youth service should include outdoor adventure, physical training, sports and games; arts, crafts, singing, dancing and creative pastimes; useful vocational and domestic skills such as carpentry, metalwork, and cooking; and social activities.
Voluntary organisations should come forward to finance as voluntary contributions, which would cover most of their day-to-day running costs.
The festival included banquets, dancing and sacrificing of goats. Whips were made from the hides of the sacrificed goats. Two teams of young men called Luperci raced naked around the hill. Women who wanted to have children stood near the path of the runners to be struck by the whips. The Romans believed that a woman struck by a whip would become fertile.
Seeing the Valentine’s Day celebration, I always wonder why don’t we celebrate a day related to social service and people of society should come forward to do something good for goodness and welfare of the society. To utilise the potentiality of youth, society should start youth service clubs, so that they can mix and reciprocate their creative views with each other.
Youth service should be a part of the education service in all societies. Its aim should be to help the young people to enjoy their leisure time and develop their characters by broadening the range of their recreational activities. It should be administered by local education authorities and voluntary organisations that arrange various kinds of group activities for young people. Activities organised by the youth service should include outdoor adventure, physical training, sports and games; arts, crafts, singing, dancing and creative pastimes; useful vocational and domestic skills such as carpentry, metalwork, and cooking; and social activities.
Voluntary organisations should come forward to finance as voluntary contributions, which would cover most of their day-to-day running costs.
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