Today is Feb. 14 which is in some parts of the world, including some parts of Indonesia, is celebrated as the so called auspicious Valentine’s Day. It is a perfect time to celebrate romance, love, and kiss with candy, flowers, chocolates and other lovely gifts. Malls, restaurants, shopping centers, shops are decorated with symbols of Valentine's Day (V-Day) including roses, cupid and heart-shaped chocolates or balloons to magnetize lovers and families alike. Millions will double their spending to take their loved ones to restaurants and eateries to celebrate their joys of their togetherness with delicious cuisines on this special day or even buy precious gifts such as diamonds or any other expensive jewelry as a pledge of their fealty to their beloved. It is actually a western culture derived from ancient Rome during the era of paganism associated with feast of Lupercalia, a pagan fertility festival to its present incarnation as a commercial free-for-all driving huge sales of chocolate, flowers and jewelry. At present time, it is promoted and nurtured smartly by the greeting companies with collaboration with the candy, flower, and teddy bear companies to make more money. The ads and pop culture in movies, songs, poetry published within any digital screens are the driving force behind this continued lore. It is just the perfect conductor to nourish the idea worldwide. Everything with love and romance will always definitely catch the attention of the tender hearts. As a result, Valentine’s Day today is celebrated not only in the western countries but also in Eastern countries. Yes… it is undeniably a huge cash machine that generates billions of dollars. But do you know that the origin of St Valentine's Day, is actually dark, bloody — and a bit muddled.
http://www.npr.org/2011/02/14/133693152/the-dark-origins-of-valentines-day
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/relationships/valentines-day/7187784/History-of-Valentines-Day.html
Personally, I don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day. Nor do I have any objection or any grudge for those who celebrate it. It’s a matter of personal preference. It’s just that I don’t see any point of celebrating the day. Love is every day celebration whether it’s parental love, friendship love, or respectful love, you name any. It has nothing to do with my Faith (although, Faith has its part on me, lol). Rather, I see such festivity is just way too much, corny, and too bloody exaggerated in my point of view of eastern culture. It’s just out of place. Seeing celebrities boast of their ways in spending their V-Day in infotainments, couples present their precious gifts and throw hugs and kisses in public is just not befitting. It’s like hearing a song out of its tune, irritating and a bit annoying, lol. For young Indonesians who live in big cities like Jakarta, Surabaya, or Bandung, they know exactly how to rejoice the day. It’s a love time! They will be busy choosing the right gifts for their beloved; the red roses? The heart shaped-chocolate? Or the beautifully carved pink V-Day card inserted in a bouquet. Oh yeah… love birds are in every corner of Jakarta on this 14th of Feb.
However, it's rather silly to hold V-Day celebration responsible for the badly decline on the morals of the young generation today as accused by some religious hardliners. The root cause is much deeper that such festivity ranging from the bad side effects of globalisation, modernization, etc. So long, it is not adressed properly, the decline will be worsening over times. You can't just curb any personal preference or ban someone to do something that is not against the law. I think it's wiser to instill religious values, ethics, and morality to our young generation so that they know what choices to make in life. Instead of putting them in 'a cage' by banning them from things we consider bring harms and damage, we should prepare, equip, and train them with sufficient 'ammunitions' to enable them fight their own battle and win :-).
Sometimes, I can’t help wondering whether they know the history of the Valentine Day they celebrate or not. I mean to memorialize something, you need to know the meaning or why it is deemed necessary to honor such a day. It should be something ingrained within our consciousness so that we can properly pay tribute to such occasion. It is not about following the trend, or just goes along the trend to stay up to date, and regarded as modern. If such is the case, then it will be easier for the huge sales of commercial companies to lay traps on you. You will end up buying things you don’t really require. Your spending will increase which means your savings will be less while the companies are growing fatter in their bellies because people like us feed them unconsciously. Back to V-Day, I don’t encourage people especially youngsters and teenagers to celebrate the day solely because it is deemed modern and up to date. It’s a matter of personal preference. It’s up to you to decide the good and the bad sides of any choice you take. Yet, I think it’s wise to ask yourselves before you take part in such festivity whether is it truly love you celebrate? Or are you just following the trend of the so called popular culture? Worse, are you just victims of the gigantic commercial sales ads to generate more money? If you don’t celebrate, you will be branded as old fashioned, out of date. To be modern, you have to absorb anything western in your life style. Well… I don’t think so. I mean not everything from the West is good and fit to our world. There are things we should follow and apply to our life. But, there are also things that is just enough for us to know but shouldn’t follow. What we need to do is exploit the good things of everything and leave behind the bad ones.
So, if you ask me what I think of V-Day, well, you know already my answer. It’s just out of place in my world. In addition, I think it’s a bit out of tune to celebrate an event having its origin still in question or a bit unclear. Isn’t every day is love? Lol … Instead of sharing the superficiality of the notion of spending one day in sharing affection with loved ones, why can’t we show our loved ones how much we care everyday?
http://www.npr.org/2011/02/14/133693152/the-dark-origins-of-valentines-day
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/relationships/valentines-day/7187784/History-of-Valentines-Day.html
Personally, I don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day. Nor do I have any objection or any grudge for those who celebrate it. It’s a matter of personal preference. It’s just that I don’t see any point of celebrating the day. Love is every day celebration whether it’s parental love, friendship love, or respectful love, you name any. It has nothing to do with my Faith (although, Faith has its part on me, lol). Rather, I see such festivity is just way too much, corny, and too bloody exaggerated in my point of view of eastern culture. It’s just out of place. Seeing celebrities boast of their ways in spending their V-Day in infotainments, couples present their precious gifts and throw hugs and kisses in public is just not befitting. It’s like hearing a song out of its tune, irritating and a bit annoying, lol. For young Indonesians who live in big cities like Jakarta, Surabaya, or Bandung, they know exactly how to rejoice the day. It’s a love time! They will be busy choosing the right gifts for their beloved; the red roses? The heart shaped-chocolate? Or the beautifully carved pink V-Day card inserted in a bouquet. Oh yeah… love birds are in every corner of Jakarta on this 14th of Feb.
However, it's rather silly to hold V-Day celebration responsible for the badly decline on the morals of the young generation today as accused by some religious hardliners. The root cause is much deeper that such festivity ranging from the bad side effects of globalisation, modernization, etc. So long, it is not adressed properly, the decline will be worsening over times. You can't just curb any personal preference or ban someone to do something that is not against the law. I think it's wiser to instill religious values, ethics, and morality to our young generation so that they know what choices to make in life. Instead of putting them in 'a cage' by banning them from things we consider bring harms and damage, we should prepare, equip, and train them with sufficient 'ammunitions' to enable them fight their own battle and win :-).
Sometimes, I can’t help wondering whether they know the history of the Valentine Day they celebrate or not. I mean to memorialize something, you need to know the meaning or why it is deemed necessary to honor such a day. It should be something ingrained within our consciousness so that we can properly pay tribute to such occasion. It is not about following the trend, or just goes along the trend to stay up to date, and regarded as modern. If such is the case, then it will be easier for the huge sales of commercial companies to lay traps on you. You will end up buying things you don’t really require. Your spending will increase which means your savings will be less while the companies are growing fatter in their bellies because people like us feed them unconsciously. Back to V-Day, I don’t encourage people especially youngsters and teenagers to celebrate the day solely because it is deemed modern and up to date. It’s a matter of personal preference. It’s up to you to decide the good and the bad sides of any choice you take. Yet, I think it’s wise to ask yourselves before you take part in such festivity whether is it truly love you celebrate? Or are you just following the trend of the so called popular culture? Worse, are you just victims of the gigantic commercial sales ads to generate more money? If you don’t celebrate, you will be branded as old fashioned, out of date. To be modern, you have to absorb anything western in your life style. Well… I don’t think so. I mean not everything from the West is good and fit to our world. There are things we should follow and apply to our life. But, there are also things that is just enough for us to know but shouldn’t follow. What we need to do is exploit the good things of everything and leave behind the bad ones.
So, if you ask me what I think of V-Day, well, you know already my answer. It’s just out of place in my world. In addition, I think it’s a bit out of tune to celebrate an event having its origin still in question or a bit unclear. Isn’t every day is love? Lol … Instead of sharing the superficiality of the notion of spending one day in sharing affection with loved ones, why can’t we show our loved ones how much we care everyday?
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