HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY
Mike Ghouse Feb 13, 2007
Every time we have a cultural festival which once may have been a religious festival, a few of our brothers and sisters will start giving their opinions in terms of right or wrong.
They are more than welcome to it, as long as they practice it and not bother others with their impositions. Tomorrow on Valentines Day, the news papers in India , Pakistan , Bangladesh , Afghanistan and Kuwait will carry articles of how individuals were harassed, and stores were vandalized. Sadly it is in both Hindu and Muslim communities, rather in non-Christian communities. Let me qualify that… it is less than 1/10th of 1% of the people who do this.
Who authorizes these goons to go and harass the people for expressing their affection for each other? I do hope, the police undertake their responsibility to protect their citizens.
A while ago a survey was done and the question was asked, who is a Muslim?
The answers, among many responses were:
i) someone who wears a beard, ii) their women wear Hijab, iii) men who wear pants short of full length and other responses you can imagine.
If a similar question were to be asked, who is a Hindu?
The possible answers would be: i) some one who puts a dot or chalk lines on the forehead, ii) someone who takes a dip in river Ganges iii) someone who does not eat meat iii) their women wear wrap around clothes and many more response you can imagine.
Would you prefer the above identifications or the following ID?
I) some one who tells the truth, ii) some one who is trust worthy, iii) some one who is modest, iv) someone who cares about other people, v) some one who volunteers his or her time for making the society a better place to live, vi) some one who is reliable …..
I am certain; members of each religion can give innumerable examples for this ID from both religions. I encourage you to write your comments. http://mikeghouse.blogspot.com/2007/02/happy-valentines-day.html
Despite its origins, Valentine’s Day is a designated day to celebrate love,
where two people chose to express their affection for each other.
Wait a minute! Please do not jump to conclusions that Valentine’s Day is about lust or repugnant behavior. Then it becomes your personal problem that I suggest you to keep it to yourselves.
Valentine Day is a universal expression of affection between any two individuals. Between husband and wife, between two people in love, be it mother and son, father daughter, brother sister, friends, uncles, aunties…. Grand Pa and Grand Ma.
This expression of affection can range between any family members and any friends. Love does not have any bounds. The Sadhus and Sufis also can say happy Valentine to God.
Please feel free to say happy valentine to your sister, mother, brother, daughter, dad, uncle or a friend. It is a much bigger word now than it started out to be. Take them out for dinner send them a flower to let them know that you care.
And I do care about each one of you.
Happy Valentine's Day.
Mike Ghouse
Added today:
There is Mother's day; our culture and our faith talks about Mothers' place being the highest. The American culture formalizes that into really doing something about it and it is a beautiful day.
There is Father's day, same story.
There is Rakhi, same story. It is not about Hinduism any more, it is about caring for the sister and honorably it originated in the Hindu culture. The affection between brother and sister is one of the most beautiful relationships to be cherished.
From a pagan tradition, the valentine' day moved on to becoming a culture of the people living in the western hemisphere, and now it is embracing love and affection in general. It is caring about the people you love, a special day for it. We do care every day in theory, in practice, like all human beings we forget. This day formally reminds us to honor the loved ones.
It has no more religious connotations, although to become a universal affection day, it will take another decade.
I am talking about the vandalism and compulsions that goes on today - Hindu's need not gloat nor Muslims for the errant behavior of the few today in the Subcontinent. The extreme element is same in all faiths.
Globalizing is happening - from a narrow romantic meaning, the Valentine's day is going global, becoming an all inclusive day.
added on 2/15/07 in response to a question.
It depends on what culture means; to some, it is the way we live, go to work, celebrate weddings, festivals, mourn, meet and greet, what we wear and what and how we eat.
The Subcontinentian Culture is distinctly different from Arab Culture, where Islam originated and again it is different from the Filipino culture.
The Milaad we celebrate, the homage to the Wali Allahs Mazaars ( few oppose, few are neutral and few make it their duty), the way we name ourselves are all different in each Muslim community – The differentiating factor is Culture.
The Sarees our women wear, the red Saree on the wedding eve, the foods are different in each Muslim community, they are even different within India. That is a cultural difference.
The names we give to our children – are different than the Arab Names and different than Latino Muslim names. When men and women converted to Islam, right from Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) to all the Sohabis (associates)…. None of them changed their names. They kept the original names.
When they moved to Iran, Egypt and elsewhere … Muslim conquerors did not push the way they name themselves, nor their eating habits or clothing habits on to the subject population. Islam was not, and is not an imperialistic religion. It is a religion of freedom of speech, freedom of thought and freedom of worshiping the divine.
Culture and Islam are two different things, if you find other wise, I am open to learning.
Valentines get a taste of swadeshi ire
ReplyDelete[ 15 Feb, 2001 1004hrs ISTA STAFF REPORTER ]
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/21242542.cms
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NEW DELHI: This one's specially for the camera. First he assiduously informed the media about his plans. Then he waited for the cameramen to reach the venue. And once the shutterbugs were in place, the angle was perfect, the attention was focussed, he began the role-play....He tore down the colourful festoons, the plastic hearts, the paper roses; heckled harmless lost-in-love couples; pulled chairs, flung flowerpots and declared: V-Day is videshi. Sample the anti-Valentine Day protest at a fast food joint in Connaught Place.
``The protester, before flinging with flower pots placed outside the joint, informed some mediapersons about his plans. He started the action only the press photographers were in place,'' said an onlooker. And once the mediapersons left, the lone protestor left too, he says. Welcome to V-Day: a celebration of love for some; a celebration of self-love for others. Nevertheless, a day that is longed for, by both the parties: the cootchie-coo brigade and the self-appointed culture cops, swearing by swadeshi and sanskriti. All over the country, the so-called ``social watchdogs'' selectively targeted outlets of greeting card companies and fast-food joints, which had put up banners for Valentine's Day celebrations and launched special schemes to celebrate the day. And all the while, they ensured the media was there. Demonstrators, owing allegiance to Shiv Sena, allegedly burnt banners and placards outside a a five-star hotel in Connaught Place area for attacking shops and holding demonstration. The police detained 14 demonstrators, who were freed later.
One of the protestors insisted they were crusading for Bharatiya sanskriti. But was burning greeting cards the best way of protecting Indian values? ``Yes, we have the right to register our protest against videshi sanskriti,'' he said. Consider their rights... In Lucknow, it was cultural vandalism on display as scores of volunteers of Hindu Jagran Mancha (HJM) struck terror here on Wednesday afternoon. They smashed computers, broke cash boxes, tore Valentine cards and shouted obscenities at shop owners. The petrified traders pulled down their shutters quickly while customers ran for cover. HJM volunteers had warned Hazratganj traders on Tuesday itself not to sell Valentine cards. The traders had requested the Hazratganj police for security. But, for reasons best known to them, the police decided not to intervene as the ``tandav'' of these ``goonda'' elements continued, said an agitated trader. At around 1:30 pm some unidentified youths reached Hazratganj in Marutis and Tata Sumos. Manisha Tiwari, a customer who was buying cards in Archies Gallery when all this happened, told The Times of India that before the owner could close the shop, the ``ruffians swooped down on him and assaulted the staff, damaged the cash box and dumped the computer on the floor. They even snatched cards and Valentine gifts from customers.'' In Mumbai, 17 Shiv Sainiks were arrested in different parts of the city for protesting against the Valentine Day's celebrations on Wednesday.
They were booked for unlawful assembly and were released on bail on Wednesday evening. While the city police claimed that the Sena's stir had received a mixed response, the party leadership insisted that the `Down-with-Valentine' dhamaka was fairly successful. ``We received a very good response from the youth,'' said key Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray. Ridiculing the argument that cupid's arrow was a strictly personal matter and that the Sena had no business to interfere in it, he said ``in that case, the love-birds should observe privacy and not publicise their love-affairs on the streets of Mumbai''. About four alleged Sainiks also stormed in the Prabhadevi office of a city English morninger and protested against the publication of an article on Valentine's Day.
They burnt a few copies of the newspaper before escaping from the spot. In all, there have been more than 20 incidents of protests by Sainiks in the city in the past two days. In Bareilly, eight persons were injured in clashes between the activists of the Hindu Jagran Manch and the Bajrang Dal. Each tried to outdo the other in forcibly closing shops, smashing cars and glasspanes and burning cards. In Varanasi, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad activists chopped off the hair of several young men who were celebrating the day on the Benares Hindu University campus. In Kanpur, Shiv Sena activists went on a rampage and burnt the effigy of St Valentine in front of the medical college. In Bhopal, 18 people, including six cops were injured in clashes which erupted all over the city when Shiv Sena activists launched a violent protest against V-Day. What's love got to do with all this, anyway?
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1420023.cms
ReplyDelete'We've had enough!'
Roshni Olivera
[ 18 Feb, 2006 2349hrs ISTTIMES NEWS NETWORK ]
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City youngsters disgusted by the recent Valentine's Day vandalism. Sadaf Aboli, NSUI President speaks out.
Sadaf Aboli, President of the National Student Union of India (NSUI) presents the voice of the youth on the recent violence this Valentine's Day by some Shiv Sena members: "The youth in Mumbai have had enough.
As a representative of the student community, I can really say this that every young person in the city is disgusted with what happened on Valentine's Day recently.
Why should anybody disrupt a party? Who gives them the right to beat up people? All this in the name of Indian culture and tradition!
Youngsters today know what is good and bad for them. They are not interested in politics. They are aware that the vandalism on Valentine's Day is nothing but a political gimmick to get mileage.
Talking about Valentine's Day, I don't know why it should be associated only with romantic love. It can also refer to love between a parent and kid, grandparents and grand-children, friends etc.
It's more a reason to celebrate and enjoy. A reason to give gifts, perhaps. If we can celebrate a birthday and cut a cake (which is also a Western tradition) why can't we celebrate Valentine's Day?
Nobody protested when they brought Michael Jackson here. Isn't he from the West? Why then are they trying to dictate terms and adopting violent means to terrorise people?
Youngsters today know what is good and bad for them. They are not interested in politics. They are aware that the vandalism on Valentine's Day is nothing but a political gimmick to get mileage.
Talking about Valentine's Day, I don't know why it should be associated only with romantic love. It can also refer to love between a parent and kid, grandparents and grand-children, friends etc.
It's more a reason to celebrate and enjoy. A reason to give gifts, perhaps. If we can celebrate a birthday and cut a cake (which is also a Western tradition) why can't we celebrate Valentine's Day?
Nobody protested when they brought Michael Jackson here. Isn't he from the West? Why then are they trying to dictate terms and adopting violent means to terrorise people?
http://in.news.yahoo.com/040214/43/2bhx6.html
ReplyDeleteAcid thrown on youth for celebrating Valentine's Day
By Indo-Asian News Service
Bhopal, Feb 14 (IANS) An acid attack on a youth and an assault on a gift shop cast a shadow on Valentine's Day celebrations in Madhya Pradesh Saturday.
In Ujjain, 300 km from here, unidentified assailants threw acid on a youth who was sitting in a park with a girl.
He was rushed to hospital where he is stated to be out of danger.
Police have registered a case.
Suspected Bajrang Dal activists assaulted a physically challenged person in Gwalior district for defying their diktat and keeping his greeting card shop open.
"They barged into my shop and started damaging things. I could not escape as I am handicapped and they beat me up," said Prakash Ramtri.
The Dal activists stormed into the office of Navbharat, a Hindi daily, in Jabalpur to protest the Valentine's Day messages carried by the newspaper.
Vandalism was also reported from other areas in jabalpur district, where greeting card shops were damaged.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1925923,000600010004.htm
ReplyDeleteShiv Sainiks vandalise two Archies galleries
Yogesh Joshi
Pune, February 12, 2007
Feeling rejuvenated after the new lease of life in Mumbai and Thane municipal elections, the Shiv Sena is back in the form again. And to make it clear to everybody, activists of the saffron party has once again assumed its original territory of vandalism.
On Monday, hundreds of Shiv Sainiks gathered at a new mall constructed on Senapati Bapat road and attacked the Archies gallery for putting Valentine-day greeting cards on sale. These sainiks also set afire many cards.
While the Sainiks were indulging in vandalism, the shop owner watched helplessly while requesting the mob to take greetings cards outside the shop. The sainiks then agreed to it and brought only a few cards outside, setting them afire.
Soon after this incident, another bunch of Sainiks gathered at the old Deccan talkies on Deccan square and damaged a huge hoarding placed by Hutch showcasing Valentine's Day in balloons. There was however no formal police complaint registered until evening. City police officials said that if anybody came forward and registered formal complaints, police will definitely take action against those who are behind the act.
Ajay Shinde, president of city unit of Bharatiya Vidyarthi Sena, a youth wing of Shiv sena, told Hindustan Times that, the party's message through its activity is clear. "Valentine day like celebrations are all western concepts and has been forced on our society for the commercial purpose. Shiv sena will never allow the commercialization of Indian feelings, projected through love.
On the other hand newly formed Maharashtra Navnirman Sena has taken a nutral stand on the issue of Valentines day celebrations. City unit of MNS Vikram Boke told Hindustan Times that the party does not feel that in one day the culture of the country will be spoiled if Valentines day celebrations are made. "So far as Pune is concerned We will not come across shiv sainiks, who have decided to sabotage the celebrations. Ts basically police' job and they have to take the action.
Meanwhile in Pune, which is known as "Oxford of East" for its quality education, many educational institution are contemplating to ban the celebrations inside the campus in view of Shiv Sena's threat. "Last year we could not celebrate the v-day inside the campus because of college authorities banned it. This year too, teachers have been contemplating the same," said Sudha Shrivastava, second year student of commerce from Fergusson college.
Hard-line Hindu, Muslim groups protest Valentine's Day in India
ReplyDeleteThe Associated PressPublished: February 14, 2007
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/02/14/asia/AS-GEN-India-Valentine-Protest.php
NEW DELHI: It was hardly a Hallmark moment.
As a Valentine's Day card smoldered, more than 100 members of the Hindu extremist group Shiv Sena gathered in central New Delhi chanted "Death to Valentine's Day" and "People who celebrate Valentine's Day should be pelted with shoes!"
Valentine's Day has in the past two decades made strong inroads in India as the country has slowly opened itself up to the outside world — its economic boom bringing in not just foreign investment, but also aspects of Western culture virtually unknown here a quarter-century ago.
Across the country, stores stocked heart-shaped balloons and chocolates, restaurants offered Valentine's Day specials and young lovers found refuge from prying eyes in the parks.
It's a state of affairs that enrages Hindu and Muslim hard-liners, who on Wednesday vented just as they do every Valentine's Day — burning cards, holding rallies and even threatening to beat couples caught canoodling in public, a strict no-no for those who claim to defend traditional Indian values.
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"This is a conspiracy to misguide the young people of our country," said Jai Bhagwan Goel, chief of the Shiv Sena's north India branch.
In his hand the card, with its image of a Victorian couple pictured in a tepid peck under a parasol, went up in flames.
"We have come to know that in America, even unmarried girls as young as 11 or 12 years have become mothers ... and every second man there is divorced," Goel told reporters after reducing several greeting cards to a small pile of ash. "This is their culture_ it cannot be accepted here."
Goel and his indignant followers left soon after when about 60 riot police stopped them from advancing on nearby restaurants offering Valentine's Day specials.
For the day, the Hindu hard-liners found themselves, unusually, on the same side as Islamic separatist groups in Indian-controlled Kashmir, a predominantly Muslim region in the Himalayas.
About 40 protesters, calling themselves the Forum Against Social Evil, marched on a popular restaurant area in Srinagar, the region's main city, calling on shop owners to refuse to serve couples and refrain from un-Islamic practices on Wednesday.
"The government is promoting such obscenities," said Asiya Andrabi, the leader of Kashmir's only women's separatist group, Dukhtaran-e-Millat, before police ordered them away, too.
Kashmir's separatists want independence from predominantly Hindu India or a union with Muslim Pakistan, which controls the other part of the divided region.
Weather intervened to stop Hindu extremists in the northern city of Lucknow from carrying out their threats to beat couples found kissing, hugging or even holding hands in public. With torrential rains pouring down, young lovers stayed out of the parks where the usually seek privacy.
Still, even if some lovers stayed out of sight, they made their desires known, placing ads on special Valentine's Day pages in newspapers.
"My heart is like a cabbage," declared a man named Manoj to some lucky lady. "Divided into two; the leaves are for others and the heart for you
India's fascination with Valentine's Day - An old piece
ReplyDeletehttp://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/1820440.stm
The Taj Mahal - India's most famous expression of love
The BBC's Vijay Rana explains how Valentine's Day has replaced more traditional celebrations of love in India
Among the numerous gods of the Hindu pantheon, Kamadev is the lord of love.
He wields a bow of flowers.
Couples fall in love when struck by his rose-decorated arrows.
Valentine's Day is popular with young urbanites
India is also the home of the Kamasutra, the most elaborate treatise on lovemaking.
There are numerous folk tales of legendary lovers who kissed death with a promise to meet, or rather mate, in heaven.
These old tales are so lurid they make Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet a pale afterthought.
Indians protesting against Valentine's Day celebrations make one wonder what has happened to the people who once sculpted the passionate love makers on the temple walls at Khajuraho.
That ancient tradition of love died somewhere in the Middle Ages.
No longer was it celebrated in public cultural displays.
Lovers were frowned upon.
Sexual suppression was severe and vehement.
Lovers who came from unequal castes were punished and even occasionally executed.
The tradition of Kamadev was buried and the lessons of the Kamasutra were forgotten - then, a decade ago, Valentine's Day began to make an impression in India.
Recent advent
Before that, hardly anyone celebrated Valentines Day in India.
Purists dubbed it as another decadent influence of the west.
But economic globalisation followed by the emergence of a class of neo-rich brought in a new a culture of fancy dinners and dance clubs, foreign satellite channels and expensive card shops.
Young Romeos are often demanding
Their clientele were the privileged few.
But millions of those who were unable to escape the grind of a meagre life could not be deprived of Valentine's universal gift of love.
Commercial TV channels invented special Valentine shows, dedications of love filled radio programmes and even love letter competitions were organised.
When Indians do something they tend to overdo it.
Weeks before Valentine's Day street Romeos reappear everywhere.
Many of them pretend to enact the Bollywood style boy-meets-girl stories that often degenerate into verbal abuse.
Tough love
Such harassment of women is a widespread problem in many parts of India.
Perhaps to lighten the social guilt it is rather imaginatively described as 'eve teasing'.
Pestering can take the shine off love
This kind of abuse becomes rampant in the days preceding Valentine's Day.
There is simply no escape for those girls uninfected by the love bug.
"It is virtually impossible to get out of your house before you find a love-struck class-fellow waiting for you. And you never know what they will do," said one of the harassed girls.
Sexual crimes are not uncommon in India.
Jilted lovers have strange ways of taking revenge: Verbal abuse, physical assaults, rapes, kidnappings and even throwing of acid and disfiguring a woman for life.
Sociologists have yet to come up with figures, but there is clear evidence that this abuse grows during the Valentine season.
People find ingenious ways to express love.
A few years ago a drunken thug, emulating a Bollywood film hero, arrived on horseback with a gun in his hand.
He fired a shot in the air and declared to the terrified father of the girl he fancied: "The bandit king has not come to destroy your house, but to marry your daughter and to shower prosperity on your house."
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http://www.religionfacts.com/christianity/holidays/valentines_day.htm
Valentine's Day is a celebration of romantic love occurring annually on February 14.
Although it is associated by legend with a Catholic saint named Valentine, Valentine's Day is not a religious holiday and never really has been. Valentine's Day has historical roots mainly in Greco-Roman pagan fertility festivals and the medieval notion that birds pair off to mate on February 14.
The custom of exchanging cards and other tokens of love on February 14 began to develop in England and France in the 14th and 15th centuries and became especially popular in the United States in the 19th and 20th centuries. Over the last decade or so, Valentine's Day observance has even spread to the Far East, India, and the Middle East.
Lupercalia, a precursor to Valentine's Day.
History of Valentine's Day
The association of the middle of February with love and fertility dates to ancient times. In ancient Athens, the period between mid-January and mid-February was the month of Gamelion, which was dedicated to the sacred marriage of Zeus and Hera.
In ancient Rome, February 15 was Lupercalia, the festival of Lupercus (or Faunus), the god of fertility. As part of the purification ritual, the priests of Lupercus would sacrifice goats and a dog to the god, and after drinking wine, they would run through the streets of Rome striking anyone they met with pieces of the goat skin. Young women would come forth voluntarily for the occasion, believing that being touched by the goat skin would render them fertile. Young men would also draw names from an urn, choosing their "blind date" for the coming year. In 494 AD the Christian church under Pope Gelasius I appropriated the some aspects of the rite as the Feast of the Purification.
St. Valentine Baptizing St. Lucilla by Jacopo Bassano, 1575. Image: WGA.
In Christianity, at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus, all of them martyrs, are mentioned in the early lives of the saints under the date of February 14. Two of the Valentines lived in Italy in the third century: one as a priest at Rome, the other as bishop of Terni. They are both said to have been martyred in Rome and buried on the Flaminian Way. A third St. Valentine was martyred in North Africa and very little else is known of him.
Several legends have developed around one or more of these Valentines, two of which are especially popular. According to one account, Emperor Claudius II outlawed marriage for all young men because he believed unmarried men made better soldiers. Valentine defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young couples and was put to death by the emperor for it. A related legend has Valentine writing letters from prison to his beloved, signing them "From your Valentine."
However, the connection between St. Valentine and romantic love is not mentioned in any early histories and is regarded by historians as purely a matter of legend. The feast of St. Valentine was first declared to be on February 14 by Pope Gelasius I around 498. It is said the pope created the day to counter the practice held on Lupercalia, but this is not attested in any sources from that era.
An amorous love bird. Photo: Tim Williams.
The first recorded association of St. Valentine's Day with romantic love was in the 14th century in England and France, where it was believed that February 14 was the day on which birds paired off to mate. Thus we read in Geoffrey Chaucer's (c. 1343-1400) Parliament of Fowls, believed to be the first Valentine's Day poem:
For this was on saint Valentine's day,
When every fowl comes there to choose his mate.
It became common during that era for lovers to exchange notes on Valentine's Day and to call each other their "Valentines." The first Valentine card was sent by Charles, duke of Orleans, to his wife in 1415 when he was a prisoner in the Tower of London. Valentine's Day love notes were often given anonymously. It is probable that many of the legends about St. Valentine developed during this period (see above). By the 1700s, verses like "Roses are red, violets are blue" became popular. By the 1850s, romantics in France began embellishing their valentine cards with gilt paper, ribbons and lace.
Girls making Valentine's Day cards.
Valentine's Day was probably imported into North America in the 19th century with settlers from Britain. In the United States, the first mass-produced valentines of embossed paper lace were produced and sold shortly after 1847 by Esther A. Howland (1828 - 1904) of Worcester, Massachusetts. Her father operated a large book and stationery store, and she took her inspiration from an English valentine she had received.
In the 19th century, relics of St. Valentine were donated by Pope Gregory XVI to the Whitefriar Street Carmelite Church in Dublin, Ireland, which has become a popular place of pilgrimage on February 14.
But in 1969, as part of a larger effort to pare down the number of saint days of legendary origin, the Church removed St. Valentine's Day as an official holiday from its calendar.
Valentine's Day Customs and Traditions
Photo: Janine Healy.
The primary custom associated with St. Valentine's Day is the mutual exchange of love notes called valentines. Common symbols on valentines are hearts, the colors red and pink, and the figure of the winged Cupid.
Starting in the 19th century, the practice of hand writing notes began to give way to the exchange of mass-produced greeting cards. These cards are no longer given just to lovers, but also to friends, family, classmates and coworkers. Valentine cards are often accompanied by tiny candy hearts with affectionate messages printed on them.
The Greeting Card Association estimates that approximately one billion valentine cards are sent worldwide each year, making Valentine's Day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year, behind Christmas. The association also estimates that women purchase approximately 85 percent of all valentines.
In the last 50 years or so, especially in the United States, the practice of exchanging cards has been extended to include the giving of gifts, usually from a man to his girlfriend or wife. The most popular Valentine's Day gifts are roses and chocolate. Starting in the 1980s, the diamond industry began to promote Valentine's Day as an occasion for the giving of fine jewelry. Many couples also schedule a romantic dinner date on Valentine's Day.
Valentine's Day over Tokyo. Photo: Mart.
Valentine's Day in China and Japan
Thanks to a concentrated marketing effort, Valentine's Day has emerged in Japan as a day on which women give chocolates to men they like.
This has become for many women – especially those who work in offices – an obligation, and they give chocolates to all their male co-workers (especially the boss), sometimes at significant personal expense. This chocolate is known as giri-choco, which translates as "chocolate of obligation."
Gifts for White Day. Photo: amanda.
By a further marketing effort, a reciprocal day called White Day has emerged in Japan. On this day (March 14), men are supposed to return the favor by giving something to those who gave them chocolates on Valentine's Day. Many men, however, give only to their girlfriends. The gift should be white (hence the name) and is often lingerie.
Valentine's Day is also celebrated in China, as is the related Daughter's Festival. It is held on the 7th month and 7th day of the lunar calendar and celebrates a love story between the seventh daughter of the Emperor of Heaven and an orphaned cowherd, who were sent to separate stars and only allowed to see each other on this one day each year. The next Daughter's Festival will be on August 11, 2005.
Valentine's Day Controversy in India and the Middle East
Valentine's Day only arrived in India a few years ago, but it has quickly gained popularity among young urban people along with a great deal of controversy among conservative Hindus. Traditional Hindu culture discourages public displays of affection between the sexes, including hand-holding, which Valentine's Day encourages, and Valentine's Day is also resented by some as a Christian and western influence.
In 2004, militant Hindu nationalists threatened to beat the faces and shave the heads of those who participated in Valentine's Day customs. "We will not allow westernization of Indian culture as St. Valentine was a Christian and celebrating Valentine's Day would be a violation of Indian culture," said Ved Prakash Sachchan, of the militant Hindu organization Bajrang Dal, in Uttar Pradesh. Similarly, a leader of the radical Hindu group Shiv Sena has condemned the holiday as "nothing but a Western onslaught on India's culture to attract youth for commercial purposes." Members of the group have stolen Valentine's Day greeting cards from a store and ceremonially burned them.
Similar Valentine's Day backlash has occurred in many Muslim countries. In Pakistan in 2004, the Jamaat-e-Islami party, an Islamist organization, called for a ban on Valentine's Day. One of its leaders dismissed it as "a shameful day" when Westerners "are just fulfilling and satisfying their sex thirst." Also in 2004, the government of Saudi Arabia issued an edict declaring that "there are only two holidays in Islam - Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha - and any other holidays ... are inventions which Muslims are banned from." Police closely monitored stores selling roses and some women were arrested for wearing red.
Despite this official opposition from authorities, many people in Middle Eastern countries seem to be enjoying the new holiday. One shopper, buying a red heart-and-rose card for her son-in-law, is reported as having dismissed the backlash as "only rigidity and cultural backwardness. Through the crackdown, they only buy people's greater hatred and enmity."
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MANGROVE LOVE: One hundred Filipino couples carry mangrove saplings to a shore for a mass wedding at a sea coast during a unique Valentine’s Day ceremony in the Philippines. This move was aimed at spreading awareness about protecting the environment. (AFP Photo)
JUST MARRIED: Newly-wed couples take part in a tricycle parade after registering their marriages at the Bangrak (district of Love) government office in Bangkok.
The day in pics: Members of the Forum Against Social Evils burn Valentine's Day cards in Srinagar
It’s a green Valentine for Goa’s youth
http://hindustantimes.com/news/7097_1927324,00870001.htm
Press Trust of India
Panaji, February 14, 2007
Advertisement
This is one Valentine’s Day which is going to be mint-fresh and different, at least for the youngsters in Goa.
While the world paints Valentine’s Day with pink, around 15,000 young hearts will wear green as they celebrate February 14 with their valentine —Nature — at the tiny Loutolim village in south Goa.
“Upto 15,000 school and college students will participate in this project, which will have these young hearts celebrating Valentine’s Day with Nature,” Maendra Alvares, the promoter of Big Foot — the organisers of the event said.
“The students will pledge to protect their Valentine throughout their lives and will be friendly with it, saving it from man-made destruction,” Alvares said. A Valentine, he noted, does not mean just loving or affection between two humans, but could also be with nature.
During the event, Clinton Vaz, a noted social activist, will educate the students about tackling garbage menace. Alvares said the state, grappling to save itself from real estate and a massive garbage problem, needs to work on more such initiatives to make future generations environment-friendly.