Valentine’s Day is a day when people show their affection to others by sending cards, flowers or chocolates with messages of love.

The day is celebrated on 14th February, as an annual festival to celebrate romantic love, friendship, and admiration.

Valentine Day is named after a Catholic priest, Saint Valentine, who believed in the importance of love.

The Catholic priest began to conduct marriage for soldiers in secret Christian ceremonies at a time, when Emperor Claudius Two, a pagan created strict laws about what Christians were allowed to do.

 Claudius believed that Roman soldiers should be completely devoted to Rome, and therefore passed a law preventing them from marrying.

Eventually, Valentine’s act was found out, and he was jailed for it. While in prison, Valentine cared for his fellow prisoners as well as the blind daughter of the jailer.

He was said to have cured the girl of blindness and that his final act before being executed on February 14 in the year 270 was to write her a love message signed ‘from your Valentine’.

It was not until more than two hundred years later that 14 February was proclaimed St Valentine’s Day.

While Valentine’s Day is celebrated in most countries, different cultures have developed their own traditions for this festival.

In some parts of the world, Valentine’s Day is observed as a day for expressing love between family members and friends, rather than that of romantic couples.

Some traditions include leaving lollies and gifts for children and others, including acts of appreciation between friends.

Gifts of flowers or a single red rose are sent with romantic messages to loved ones while couples spend special time together. 

Many couples choose to celebrate Valentine’s Day with dinner, a picnic or special home-cooked meal. Many restaurants offer Valentine’s Day dinner promotions, and food is often presented with symbols of love like hearts and flowers.

Marriage proposals are also popular on Valentine’s Day, and it is often chosen as the perfect day to express love and commitment.

Sharing of love to one another should not be a day issue, as people need to express love to loved ones not only on Valentine’s Day but to the less privileged in the society.

The less privileged in the society need love and care, and just as Saint Valentine went extra miles to showcase this to soldiers who intended to get marry.

People should try and pay visits to the sick in the hospitals, prisons and rehabilitation centres, these are categories of people who need love and care the more.

Also, the media, parents and schools should brace up about spreading the real reasons for celebrating Valentine’s Day. It is not just about romantic love. Children of school age need to be taught about concentrating more on their studies and not debased the spirit of Saint Valentine’s Day, as many view it as an opportunity to engage in immoral practices.

Government should as well show more love and care to those affected by natural disasters or clashes, while corporate social responsibility of companies should equally focus on service to humanity. 

Love, they say makes the world go round, and to this end, people should strive to care enough for the living to make a better place for all.

Olaolu Fawole

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