The Dark Secret Of Valentine's Day

Should we celebrate Valentine's day?

So, Saint Valentine was a priest who married hundreds of soldiers and their brides despite the prohibition instituted by Emperor Claudius II.

So basically Valentine ministered the persecuted Christians.

Saint Valentine was publicly beaten with sticks and stones. On February 14, he was beheaded in full view of the crowd at the Via Flaminia. His body was buried at a Christian cemetery which has been observed as the Feast of Saint Valentine. It is said that the whole card giving thing is because he wrote a love/goodbye letter to a woman he "cured". 

According to NPR (An American privately and publicly funded non-profit media organization), initially, mid-February was when the Roman fertility festival of Lupercalia was held, where men sacrificed a goat and a dog and reportedly whipped women with the hides of the dead animals in the hopes of increasing the women's fertility.

According to Noel Lenski, a historian at the University of Colorado at Boulder, Lupercalia was "clearly a very popular thing, even in an environment where the Christians are trying to close it down."

Later poets, including Shakespeare, followed Chaucer’s lead and helped create the romantic connotations we have today. All to make it sound romantic or maybe just to change the dark truth. 

Now Valentine's day has come down to people satisfying each other by making big reservations in restaurants and spending their money on jewels, cards, flowers and whatnot. All just for the sake. If you want to surprise someone you love, make it a surprise! It does not have to be restricted to one day. 

And for the people who don't have "dates", it's considered as a sad pathetic holiday. It is totally normal. You are single the whole year, no one cares. You are alone on valentine's day and suddenly everyone is judging you. It doesn't have to be that way. Does it? Now should we really celebrate this day which witnessed a gruesome death and a cruel tradition?