Valentine’s Day is round the corner. While some are going about frantically making plans to make this day special, others are wondering why we bother to celebrate this day, year in year out. The Day is dubbed the day for lovers. The day comes with its share of specific demands on those in relationships. This day, may either be a good or bad news to many, depending on where you stand in the relationship chart. This is that time of the year when we are bombarded with the expression of love, roses, expensive gifts and candlelight dinners. Unfortunately, very few of us understand what this day is all about and its origins. According to history, Valentine’s Day or Saint Valentine’s Day is a holiday celebrated on February 14 throughout the world. It’s a day on which lovers express their love for each other by sending Valentine’s cards, red roses and offering confectionery. The holiday is named after an early Christian martyr called Valentine. The day became associated with romantic love in the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer in the High Middle Ages. “I didn’t know that Valentine’s Day is a lover’s day, until recently when I had an informal chat with a colleague. He urged me to surprise my wife with a red rose and take her on a romantic dinner,” Alex Tuyisenge says. Though, Tuyisenge emphasises that an African man’s idea of showing affection to his woman is every basic. It’s about meeting the family’s needs, and that a man who provides everything a woman needs physically and sexually, is the real lover. The romantic among us, may claim that those who do not celebrate the day are strange or don’t love. But one may also wonder why those so-called lovers have to wait until February 14, in order to make their love freeze the moment. Perhaps that’s why many end up celebrating the day with different partners each year. So, where is that chemistry called ‘LOVE’? Tune on your radio, or television. The focus is about this annually romantic day! And if you visited many of Kigali’s shops, restaurants, bars and hotels, you will notice that the mood has also moved down to the business level, as thousands of people flock in to buy gifts and book for dinners. Women are now eagerly looking forward or the day, expecting all kinds of nice surprises, while some men are vowing to make sure they are out of town so that they don’t have to live that what they term ‘contrived romance for a night’. Betty Kabalisa, says, “On Valentine’s Day, one has to be very keen when preparing for the surprises not to mess-up with her favourites. Otherwise, you may end up in a disastrous surprise if she dumped you right there.” “The fact that we are talking about love and Valentine’s Day, I don’t believe in it, because as far as I know, there is nothing like true love, but pretence,” David Kayitare. Clearly the day evokes a mixture of emotions, but still, it remains a prominent day on our calendar. Contact: lindaonly2005@yahoo.com
