With Valentine’s Day rapidly approaching, it seems appropriate to write something about romance. I searched for the origins of Valentine’s Day and found that there were three Catholic saints who were connected with love and romance in the third century (click here). Unfortunately, all three were martyred for their efforts! Around the same time in history, the Romans celebrated the pagan festival of Lupercalia which was a fertility festival. Through the course of history, the two celebrations were combined together by Pope Gelasius in the 5th century when he declared February 14 as St. Valentine’s Day.
And so Valentine’s Day has survived 16 centuries and is celebrated by many of the major countries around the world.
But I must warn you that during the last 25 years, technology has become a serious detractor to love and romance! And so I offer you four of the best ways that I know to kill a romance:
1. Send a text or a picture of yourself. According to the American Greeting Associate, there are over 1 billion valentine cards sent each year; a number only exceeded by the 2.6 billion greeting cards sent at Christmas. What not sent a letter and greeting card to your sweet heart if you can’t be there on Valentine’s Day?
2. Always take your iPad or smartphone with you on Valentine’s Day and keep checking for new test messages or e-mails. That certainly won’t make your valentine feel very important. It’s as if you are desperately looking for a better offer!
3. Don’t turn off the TV in your bedroom. I can just hear the pleas; “Just a moment honey, I want to see who won American idol! “ Or, there’s only three minutes left in the game and I want to see if they make a touchdown!” Well fella, it certainly won’t be you!
4. Wear your Google Glass on Valentine’s Day. This new technology embeds a computer within a pair of glasses and takes a video of every movement or sound that the user hears or sees. Fifty years ago it was said that “men seldom make passes at girls who wear glasses.” Really, who wants their every intimate move recorded on U-tube?
Well, no one ever said that romance would be easy. Then again, the world would probably not be populated with people if it wasn’t for romance! Happy Valentine’s Day.
