Love is in the air: Valentine’s Week 2021 begins! A look at all days of the week, history and significance

Valentine’s Week 2021: The festival of love is fast approaching, now that February is already here. A week from now is Valentine’s Day, a day of love and romance, and it brings with itself excitement, joy and promises. However, the week building up to Valentine’s Day is no less exciting, and each day comes with its own aspect of expression of love, with one of them even being dedicated to people who wish to pop the question to their significant other!

Valentine’s Week begins on February 7, that is a week before Valentine’s Day, and this year, it’s a Sunday. February 7 is Rose Day, followed by Propose Day on February 8. Chocolate Day falls on February 9, and February 10 marks Teddy Day. Promise Day falls on February 11, with Hug Day on February 12, and Kiss Day on February 13. The week finally culminates with Valentine’s Day on February 14.

However, since the entire week is a celebration of love and dedicated to couples, single or unmarried people started feeling left out and so, February 15 became an unofficial festival known as Singles Awareness Day or Singles Appreciation Day across the globe, as a Valentine’s Day equivalent for single or unmarried people.

Valentine’s Day history

While the day is beautiful and a celebration of love, the history of Valentine’s Day is a little dark. The Romans used to celebrate the feast of Lupercalia from February 13 to 15, in which men sacrificed a dog and a goat. After this, the hides of the slain animals were used by men to whip women. In fact, young women even lined up to be whipped by men due to their belief that this made them more fertile.

During the celebrations, a matchmaking lottery was also held and men picked out names of women from a box, and proceeded to profess their love to these women during the festival. This sometimes also culminated in a marriage.

However, Lupercalia was replaced by St Valentine’s Day by the end of the 5th century by Pope Gelasius, and this led to Valentine’s Day being associated with romance as well as the beginning of love.

Valentine’s Day: History of its name

The holiday has been named after Saint Valentine, a priest who is believed to have secretly helped Christian couples get married. This was a move against Emperor Claudius II, because the emperor did not allow men to get married. He was of the view that single men were better and more dedicated soldiers. Saint Valentine did not agree with this ideology and facilitated the weddings of couples in love. Due to this, he was beheaded by the Emperor.