My Thoughts On Valentine’s Day

Today, February  14,
2014, makes it exactly two years  my friend’s five year old marriage  crashed  due to irreconcilable  differences  between her and her husband which resulted from Valentine’s Day celebration. The man was alleged  to have  spent the “Lovers Day” in a hotel with another woman, an accusation he denied. There followed accusations and counter-accusations and series of problems that culminated in divorce.
Just like my friend, many people have ugly  stories  to tell about Valentine’s Day. Many couples have  had fights on Valentine’s Day when one of them didn’t  buy a nice enough  gift or worse  still forgets to  buy a gift. Many people, especially the young ones have had to do all kinds of unspeakable things to raise money for the event. All these negative stories have made many wonder if the event is worth celebrating.
Valentine’s Day started out well. It is a very old and religious celebration centred around Saint Valentine. Stories have it that Emperor Claudius II of the Roman Empire decided that young men should be soldiers, so he outlawed marriage. Claudius handed down this decree believing that soldiers would be distracted and unable to concentrate on fighting if they were married or engaged. Valentine, a Catholic Priest, defied the emperor and secretly performed marriage ceremonies. He was thrown into prison and put to death on February 14.
Valentine believed in the power of love. He identified with couples that were genuinely in love and paid the supreme prize for his love for others.
Valentine’s Day was therefore set aside for exchange of gifts to loves ones, friends, relatives and others.
Today the meaning of Valentine’s Day is gone because the society rewrote it. With  all the radio and television hype  the day is enjoying, as well as all the activities up in many cities for the event, it’s obvious the real meaning  of the day is being misused.
Many have argued that various love activities in the  night of Valentine’s Day are capable  of luring youth into fornication, alcoholism and other social  vices, and are big threats to the lives of the younger generation.
As a matter of fact, many young people are taking advantage of this day to carry out all sorts of immoral  acts. Many get  pregnant, relationships are broken, many contact dreadful  diseases like HIV/AIDS and the future of many is shattered.
Valentine’s  Day is certainly not  meant to encourage  people particularly the youth to engage  in appropriate sex and other forms of immorality.
History did not tell us that St Valentine was a fornicator. So it is absurb associating Valentine’s Day with sexual promiscuity.
I think for Valentine’s Day celebration to make more meaning in our lives as individuals and as a society, we must have to do things right. Let us use this day of love to  celebrate all the people in our lives. This  is what Valentine’s Day should really be like, seizing the opportunity to tell the people we love  that they are special to us and actually making time to do something  about it.
The point of this day is not to indulge in immoral  acts in the name of the love or ruin your relationship over material things. The point of Valentine’s Day is, or at least should be, to appreciate  one  another. We  are expected to use this date to pay tribute to love, this universal human value that transcends geographic, religious and cultural challenges.
There is no doubt that when such selfless, true love is expressed  to one  another  there  will be peace in our families and the country  in general, especially when neighbourly love is practiced not only on Valentine’s Day but every day.
I want to encourage churches, Non-Governmental Organisations states and federal ministries  in charge of youth affairs to emulate the former  Archbishop of Lagos, Anthony Cardinal Olubunmi in Okojie who usually gathered youths on Valentine’s  Day and taught them the essence of the  event and  also engage them meaningfully. Youths  need to be occupied  with  important,, useful activities like charity  work,  visit to the needy. This will enable  them appreciate and love others and at the same time make them better citizens.
Everything must be done  to ensure that the purity  of the society is not  abused through Valentine’s Day celebration.
Happy Val’s Day.

 
Calista Ezeaku