Valentines Day Violence

Pulse

oi-Staff

By Staff

Monday, June 1, 2009, 16:32

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. 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.

But as there are millions of supporters for Valentine's day, there are several groups and number of people opposing the Valentine's Day celebration. There used to take place violence and even bloodshed on Valentine's Day, for baseless reasons.

First of all let us see from which all corners does the opposition come from. Women usually are soft hearted and romantic. However, not all women in the world are the same and see Valentines Day as a positive event. For example, according to Agence France-Presse , “An Islamic separatist women's group, known for its fierce opposition to Western-style romance, vowed to prevent couples celebrating Valentine's Day in revolt-hit Indian Kashmir. "We will not allow anyone to observe Valentine's Day as it does nothing but spread immorality among youth," said Aasiya Andrabi, firebrand leader of the separatist Dukhtaran-e-Millat or Daughters of Faith.

Similar to this, another fanatic political movement that oppose Valentine's Day is Shiv sena which is an Indian based group of extremists. Waving saffron flags, Shiv sena protesters march to the parliament on valentine's Day and burn valentine's day cards, opposing what they called the growing western cultural influence in the country. describing the cards as obscene because they show young couples embracing and kissing, the protesters demand a ban on valentine's day celebrations in India.

"Our misguided youth are now acting as agents of western civilisation. When we have festivals like Holi and Diwali, what is the need to import such vulgar western festivals?" asked a leader of the movement to justify the irrational deed. He claimed that multinational companies are merely promoting their products by encouraging Indian youth to celebrate such occasions.

The greatest violence associated with Valentine's Day, however, goes unnoticed always. It is the disorientation and sexual abuses related to the festival. At an early age, in daycares and kindergartens, when children exchange valentines, the message is one of warmth and friendship. However, as children get older, the romantic hype surrounding Valentine's Day reinforces their belief that having an intimate relationship is critically important-even if that relationship is abusive. It leads to unholy relationships and imprudent activities. Even among young teens, relationships are affected by physical, sexual and psychological abuse, including threats of death or reprisals, damage to reputation, and harassment after separation. For some, unhealthy relationships in adolescence will establish a lifelong pattern of accepting violence.

The essence of Valentine's Day is love, brotherhood, divine romance and social affection. It is not an occasion of violence or abuses. Once everyone realises the importance of celebrations of love there would remain no rooms for violence.