By Radha, Class 6X
Red roses, boxes of chocolates, pink hearts. Do you know what day that is?
Saint Valentine’s day is one of the most popular holidays in the world. It’s the day when people express their love to loved ones.
Although it’s been commercialised into a compulsorily romantic day, this is a day to express love to anyone whether they’re your family, friends, teachers, or even pets. Our school held special events such as Valentine’s Day online lunchtime live and the Valentine’s Day bake sale.
This fascinating holiday started with the story of St. Valentine of Rome who lived in the 3rd Century. It is said that when Emperor Claudius II came to power, he created a new law that every man who was ‘of age’ was to become a soldier and marriage was forbidden. He believed that unmarried men made stronger soldiers. St. Valentine broke this rule and wed couples in secret, but eventually got caught and was sentenced to prison. In prison, he fell in love with the jailor’s daughter, and before the day of his execution, he wrote her a letter with the famous signature from your Valentine. Ever since then, every year on the 14 of February, people celebrate love and give gifts and letters to their loved ones.
Nowadays, about 180,000,000 red roses are sold every year and flower shops increase the price by 30% around this holiday. Other popular gifts include stuffed animals, romantic dinners, and chocolate. In fact, over 36,000,000 million boxes of chocolate are sold every year for this holiday! And that’s only in the USA!
Unfortunately, because of this pandemic, we weren’t able to celebrate Valentine’s Day the same way this year. However, this didn’t stop us from spreading the love around our community. Ways we can do this are by donating food, clothing, Covid-19 necessities, etc, buying things from street vendors and locals, helping families that are financially struggling, and tipping essential workers! There are so many ways to spread care during these hard times and spread love without chocolates and roses. This is also a time when we can love ourselves.
So remember,
Stay safe, stay strong, and spread the love 🙂
Resources:
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Valentine
Valentines Day Lunchtime Live:
Check out the Canva:
https://www.canva.com/design/DAEUxgDyRCs/oOCjiaB2C1zx84_8tyXoUg/view?utm_content=DAEUxgDyRCs&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link&utm_source=homepage_design_menu