Love was all around….
LAST Tuesday was Valentine’s Day – a time to celebrate love and romance… or for the cynics among you, yet another marketing gimmick created by companies looking to sell their products - with cards, some rather naff, adorable teddy bears, jewellery, perfume, lavish overpriced flowers, especially red roses, and paying a premium to eat out as it was a ‘festivo’ day. Well it wasn’t officially a holiday, but you can’t blame them can you for trying? Valentine’s Day is often celebrated, especially if you have a significant other. But then one can argue that many holidays or celebrations have been exploited by marketing campaigns – Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Halloween, etc.
Valentine’s Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine originated as a Christian feast day honouring a martyr named Valentine, but as with all these things, there are numerous versions. One is that emperor Claudius banned marriages and engagements in Rome and defying him, Valentine, a catholic priest continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When discovered he was executed on February 14, hence the date.
However, love is certainly not around for all, as in some countries, unsurprisingly Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Iran among them, Valentine’s celebrations are banned as they are seen as a cultural import from the West and against the teachings of Islam.
On a happier note and in the spirit of the occasion, many people went out of the way to decorate their businesses with lots of red hearts and balloons. I was passing through Altea old town and they’d really gone to a lot of effort… and expense with balloons.
It instantly put a smile on my and many people’s faces, with many getting their mobiles out to take a snap (yes myself included). My, what on earth did we do before the advent of mobile phones to capture the moment! Carry around an instamatic, then we had to wait for the film to be developed to see what we had shot – or not, in some cases with heads missing or unintentionally cropped.
Lingerie shops had window displays of what was deemed ‘sexy’ red underwear, hoping to entice the gentlemen in – and I guarantee, that in most cases, it will be going back, probably this weekend in exchange for something sensible and practical!
Restaurants in particular optimised decorations, using red tablecloths, red napkins, balloons and creating special menus that usually included a glass of cava with a strawberry. Here in Benidorm a proposal even hit the Spanish press when the LED tower at the end of the Avenida Mediterráneo flashed up ‘Quieres casarte conmigo? Si/No’, this
translates to… ‘Will you marry me? Yes/ No’.
Many of Benidorm’s hotels embraced the occasion, with special buffets for their guests and illuminating the outside with hearts.
Supermarkets repositioned suggested gifts such as chocolates and strawberries to prime position and, amusingly, although in the UK, some had special tickets with ‘Ideal Valentine’s gift’ attached to specific products… champagne or some sort of bubbles I can understand, but a two-pack of red kitchen roll! On the plus side, at least it wouldn’t show the blood when he got punched for daring to gift it! As they say ‘up north’ there’s nowt so strange as folk! Soon it will be Mother’s Day but here many of us are torn when to celebrate, especially children. This year it will be on March 19 in the UK, falling on the fourth Sunday in Lent as it is connected to Easter – which confusingly will be Father’s Day here in Spain!
Spanish Mother’s Day will fall on May 7 – always the first Sunday in May, like other countries around the world. I do wish everyone could follow the same date, like they do for Christmas and Easter as it really would make life so much easier!