Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.
— Lao Tzu, Chinese author and founder of philosophical Taoism
WITH Valentine’s Day just a day away, love is definitely in the air. As I drove home after work on Friday night, I saw some white tents had been erected on some busy roads in Kuching City.
These tents have actually been set up in advance by traders who are selling Valentine’s Day gifts to the public. They are conveniently set up by the roadsides to enable men, who are on their way home or to special appointments, to buy gifts for their Valentines.
Some of the popular gifts sold by these stalls are stuffed animals, particularly teddy bears, and flowers, especially red roses. In Kuching, the teddy bears can be as tall as a person.
In other places in the world, favourite Valentine’s Day gifts include jewellery, perfume, wine, candy, chocolates, scarves and romantic movies.
Does the size of a gift matter to the recipient? Does a larger teddy bear from your boyfriend means he loves you more?
I know many young girls receive teddy bears as Valentine’s Day gifts from their boyfriends or suitors. What about young men? What do their girlfriends give them? What about wives, especially those who have been married for a long time? Do their husbands even know it is Valentine’s Day on Feb 14?
Some lucky wives still receive Valentine’s Day gifts from their husbands. But many married Malaysian men I know are not romantic. They don’t believe in buying roses or other gifts on Feb 14 for their wives. They think it is a waste of money to do so.
Actually, there are many ways for men to make Valentine’s Day extra special for their wives.
These include visiting their first date location, arranging Valentine’s Day lunches for them and cooking special meals for them.
In Japan, women give chocolates to the men in their lives on Valentine’s Day. A month later, on White Day, all the men who received the presents have to return the favour.
Valentine’s Day began as a Christian feast day honouring one or two early Christian martyrs named Saint Valentine and, through later folk traditions, it became a significant cultural, religious, and commercial celebration of romance and love in many parts of the globe.
According to legends, St. Valentine of Terni, a Catholic bishop cemented Valentine’s Day as a lover’s holiday when he secretly married couples to spare the men from going to war. From then on, people started using Valentines, or formal messages in the 1500s, and by the 1700s, people began to use printed cards.
Is Valentine’s Day just for young people or newly married young couples?
No, although many of those celebrating it are in the 26-41 age group.
Valentine’s Day is a holiday in some foreign countries but not Malaysia.
According to data found by Vivint, a Utah-based smart home and security company and reported by The Salt Lake Tribune in Utah, USA, 66 per cent of millennials, those people between the ages of 26-41, will spend the day with a significant other.
Eighty-five per cent of the respondents of a special survey carried out by the company said they would be celebrating the holiday.
Fifty-eight per cent would be spending it with a significant other, 24 per cent with family, 12 per cent by themselves, six per cent with a best friend, three per cent with a close group of friends, and one per cent in a large group. The other 15 per cent did not plan on marking the holiday at all.
For some men and women, every day is Valentine’s Day. They shower their lovers and wives or husbands with gifts to show their love all year round instead of just Valentine’s Day.
But on Valentine’s Day, it will be nice for a woman, whether she is young or old, to receive a gift from her boyfriend, husband and children. Love comes in so many forms, not just sexual passion and desire. It can be a child’s love for her father or mother, love for a friend and love for humanity, etc.
Even though a lot of water has flowed under the bridge, I can still remember the special Valentine’s Day gifts a senior staff member from the typing pool received from her florist husband so long ago.
That day, the lucky woman and mother of three received from her husband a big box of chocolates and a big bouquet of flowers that were sent by special delivery.
We, all the young girls in the newspaper office and her colleagues, went gaga over the Valentine’s Day gifts. We also got to taste the delicious chocolates she generously shared with us.
As I looked at my friend’s gifts, I wished deep in my heart that someday, I would find a loving and romantic man like her.
Now, so much older and wiser, I know now that ‘Man proposes, God disposes’.
Anyway, with the celebration just a day away, happy Valentine’s Day to you all, my friends.
