Valentine's Day - Love is in the Air

The time is ripe to articulate your feelings to the person you love with the approach of the Valentine's week. The Valentine's Day is celebrated on February 14th every year with great fervor across the globe by intimate companions, thus celebrating their love and affection for each other.,
To delve in the history, it is named after one or more martyrs in Christianity named as Valentine and it was made customary by Pope Gelasius 1 in 496 A.D. On the day, the lovers express their love for each other in the form of presenting flowers, offering confectionary and sending Greeting Cards to each other (also known as Valentines). The time when courtly love flourished this day gained prominence and became associated with romantic love. It happened mainly in the era of Geoffrey Chaucer, the father of modern English Literature, in middle ages. Thus sending a Valentine (usually hand made) became a fashion in Great Britain after giving way to mass produced Greeting cards in later years.

In recent years the Valentine's Day has gained a significant place in India which is largely attributed to a fresh and suave mindset of the younger generations. There is a lot of excitement in media (both print and electronic) about the Valentine week. People are often reluctant in celebrating the day as they see it as an import of western culture and not indigenous but young people have given their verdict and have embraced the day with open arms. They can be seen hanging around and express feelings thus adding a whole new dimension to the Indian culture. They might be termed as flouting the norms of Indian culture but it can also be opined that a culture which is stagnant and fails to evolve with time is not heading on the right track.

This euphoria and fervor of youth is often hampered by certain divisions of the society who act as the caretaker of its culture and abandon the day citing it as opposed to local culture. They often indulge in the act of moral policing and take the flavor of the day and often rough up young couples. The time administration comes into picture is too little too late, for the people who can hardly figure out what is happening with them even though they are not offending any law of the land. Recently, Police has also been said to be indulged in the act of moral policing by issuing guidelines not to indulge in any overt celebrations, although they say it is to maintain amity and save the people from the wrath of moral policing. It is however a debatable topic.

All these happenings don't seem to weigh down the spirits of the couples and they are constantly devising new ways to celebrate the day. Truly, love is in the air as they have chosen an all new way to evade moral police and a unique way for staying in company. Many upward couples are doing so by opting for a chopper ride several feet high with their soul mate. The private charter companies are making special arrangements for this costly affair of these couples. What has stood by the time are the emotions but the time has changed for sure and also the way of celebrating and expressing love.

It can all be summarized in these words of John Keats, foremost romantic poet of all time, who once said for love:"I have been astonished that men could die martyrs for religion - I have shuddered at it. I shudder no more - I could be martyred for my religion - Love is my religion - I could die for that."