Valentines Day

I’ve been doing some reading about how Valentines Day started; there are few stories about how all started.

Different writings show that Valentine day originated in Rome, the headquarters of the Catholic Church, and it slowly started spreading to other parts of the world.

The Catholic Church recognizes three different saints named Valentine, who were martyred on February 14, and all date from very early in the church’s history. One was a priest in Rome, another was the bishop of Interamna (modern-day Terni in Italy), and the third died in Africa. The bishop of Interamna or a combination of the bishops inspired the holiday and some catholic priests based in Rome. Those who have investigated on this Day say that some miraculous acts are attributed to St. Valentine.

The encyclopedia of the Catholic Church explains that the reigning Roman emperor, Claudius, was recruiting soldiers to go to war, but many men didn’t wish to leave their wives or girlfriends, so the emperor outlawed new marriages. Valentine defied him by secretly marrying couples, which earned Valentine a prison sentence and, ultimately, death. A book with a title ’’Early Roman Saints’’ recounts Valentine’s stay in prison, during which he cured the jailer’s daughter of blindness. He fell in love with the woman and sent her a final letter signed ”from your Valentine.’’

In Chinese culture Valentines Day plays an important part. They call it “The Night of Seven”, it is celebrated on the 7th of the 7th (July) in every year. In Brazil they call it “Men and Women Day” and they celebrate it on the 12th June. Third Friday in September Colombians celebrate their Valentines Day (they call it lovers and friendship day)

So… what about Tamil people? Are we only allowed to have arranged marriages? and we not suppose to fall in love with anyone? We not suppose to celebrate it? To tell the truth, Tamils are not just the father to love/ lover’s day … Tamils are the Grand Father’s. Hahahaha… If you look into the Tamil old literatures, such as “Silappathikaaram” “Thol Kaappiyam” they talk about love and how a guy a girl fall in love. There are 2,381 old Tamil literature songs and 1,862 songs tell you about Inside (love) (Its called “Aham” in Tamil) Aham means Home, Heart (as in your emotional heart) or In. If you also read “Thirukkural”, Thiruvalluvar wrote poems in Kaamaththu Paal (It means love section/ and Kaamam also means Horney in Tamil :P) There are heaps of Tamil literatures talk about love, marriage and family life. [These literatures are more than 2,000 years old]

If you read these Tamil literatures you can also find out how the marriage started in Tamil culture!!... I heard few stories about marriages in Tamil culture, but what Tholkappiyam says is: When a guy and a girl fall in love and at the later stage in their life they get into arguments and they separate, to avoid that, the people around those lovers/couples organize a ceremony to get them committed to each other and get into a relationship and not to leave each other.