Romantic and Platonic Celebration of Valentine's Day In present times, Valentine's Day is not restricted to romantic couples. The festival has come to be known as the day to celebrate love that can be in any form. People therefore take opportunity of the occasion to wish ‘Happy Valentine's Day' to their friends, parents, siblings, teachers or anyone they consider special. Children too celebrate Valentine's Day by organizing concerts and classroom get-togethers.



Valentine's Day Parties and Celebrations

The most popular way of celebrating Valentine's Day is to go for a romantic date with sweetheart. One can find parks and restaurants thronged by lovers holding hands and expressing love. Valentine's Day special parties are also organized by hotels and discotheques to give the lovers an opportunity to celebrate. These days, romantic getaways are turning out to be extremely popular way of celebrating Valentine's Day. Criticism of Valentine's Day in Present Times While most people go out of their way to celebrate the day of love and romance, there are many that are very much against the festival. Some feel there is no reason to celebrate love on one particular day as love is to be cherished on all days of the year. People are also very much against the excessive commercialization of the festival. In several countries such as India, womenfolk experience the trauma of eve teasing on the day. Several societies are very much against the festival as they feel it is the ploy by multinationals to impose western cultures on conservative eastern world. In spite of the mounting criticism, the popularity of Valentine's Day festival is increasing by the year as people to not wish to miss the opportunity to express and celebrate love.

Valentines Day in Present Times

Valentines Day in present times has become a huge craze especially amongst the youth in countries around the world. Those in love start planning for the Valentine's Day celebrations with sweetheart days before the festival while those without a lover start looking for a date so that they are able to celebrate the day in the much-romanticized manner. Hype for the festival is further built up by the media and the rigorous advertising campaign run by the cards and gifts marketers.

Euphoria in the Markets

Euphoria for Valentine's Day can be felt days before the festival when the market places start exuding the spirit of the romantic festival. Shops selling cards, flowers and other romantic gifts can be seen decked with Valentine's Day symbols of hearts, cards, rose and cupid. In modern times, jewelers too, try to lure lovers with attractive schemes and bold displays of innovate and eye-catching jewelry. Florists, who get their best business in this time of the year, lure customers with big and beautiful bouquets of exotic flowers.

Valentines Day for Lovers
Valentine's Day festival holds immense importance for those in love. Lovers around the world anxiously wait for the festival as it gives them an opportunity to express love for their beloved and spend a day in togetherness. Celebrating the festival in a traditional manner lovers go out for date in a park or spend time looking into the eyes of their partners over a candlelight dinner. Indulging sweethearts with fresh flowers mainly red roses, chocolates, cards and other gifts of love is the other most popular custom of Valentine's Day for love


Historic Association of Valentine's Day with Romantic Love

Ever since its inception Valentine's Day has been associated with romantic love. Valentine's Day originated in pagan times when people celebrated February 14 in honor of Roman God of Fertility. This fertility festival coincided with beginning of the spring and was popularly known as the Feast of Lupercalia.A popular custom of this festival was pairing of young boys and girls for a year through a lottery system. The couples would eventually fall in love and marry. Another story that linked Valentine's Day festival to the day of romance goes back to the reign of Emperor Claudius II of Rome. A hardhearted king, Claudius constantly engaged Rome in bloody battles. Claudius found it tough to get soldiers for his army and felt that the reason why many men are not willing to become soldiers was their attachment with wives and families. In order to get rid of the cause of the problem perceived Claudius banned marriages and engagements in Rome. Young men and women found a savior in Saint Valentine, who defied Claudius's decree and arranged secret marriages. Valentine's act of defiance was noticed and he was put to death by Claudius on February 14 circa 270 AD. Later, when Christianity spread through Rome, Christian Church decided to turn the popular pagan event as a Christian celebration in honor of St Valentine. St Valentine's Day festival gradually came to be celebrated as a day to express love for sweethearts. Besides, during the Middle ages, people in England and France believed that February 14 marked the beginning of birds mating season. This belief further boosted the idea that February 14 should be celebrated as a day for romance.

Valentine's Day Celebration

Saint Valentine's Day festival is celebrated in a big way in countries around the world ! It is interesting to note that the popularity of this ancient festival has grown several folds and is said to be increasing by the year as more and more people are getting influenced by idea of celebrating love and lovers. The present generation holds the festival in high regard and celebrates the day by expressing love not just to their sweethearts but everyone they hold dear and spe

Early Valentine's Day Celebration

Valentine's Day Festival is said to have originated in pagan times when people celebrated February 14 in honor of Roman God of Fertility. This February fertility festival celebration that also marked the beginning of spring was known as the Feast of Lupercalia. In such festivals boys drew out names of girls from a box. They would then be regarded as a couple for a year. Sometimes these couples would fall in love and even marry. Christian Church decided to turn the pagan event into Christian celebrations in honor of St Valentine. Gradually, people began to celebrate February 14 by expressing love for their sweethearts. In the 14th century Valentine's Day began to be celebrated with loved ones and a large feast was organized to mark the day. In 16th century began the custom of exchanging gifts between lovers with the passing of paper Valentine. Initially, Valentine's Day cards were usually handmade and given anonymously. During the 1800s much larger hand-painted copperplates molded in the shape of hearts replaced paper e-cards. In later years, the copperplates gradually gave way to woodcuts and carvings and lithographs. By the middle of the 18th century, Valentine's Day become popular amongst the masses and it became a common tradition for all social classes to secretly exchange small tokens of lover or handwritten love notes called Valentine. In 19th century began the custom of sending mass-produced Valentine's Day greeting cards. This custom is very much in vogue even today.