It is that mysteriously, magical, many-splendoured thing called love, bewitching and bewildering all mankind.
Where are the verdant trees, the fresh blossoms, the bright sunshine? Why is it celebrated in the cold of winter rather than April’s roses or May’s fragrant posies? Could we not have waited to welcome spring with its display of a blissfully glorious new life?
We could have waited for spring, but we cannot. It is Valentine’s Day, the feast of the noblest of human emotions — the feast of love.
Who is this obscure and enigmatic Valentine, the patron saint of love? Why did he dictate this winter’s day for love?
The mystery of St Valentine is shrouded in mystery.
Authorities believe a feast for love and lovers started as early as the fourth century BC when Romans celebrated Lupercalia, a feast for love and lovers to the pagan god Lupercus. In an effort to convert Christians, the early Church fathers sought a “lover’s” saint to replace the 800 year-old practice for their deity.
Three Valentine martyrs were mentioned in the early martyrologies, the most appealing candidate was a priest, Valentine, Bishop of Interamna, (Termi, Italy), who had been martyred some 200 years earlier.
The legend contends that Valentine had enraged the mad emperor Claudius II, who had abolished marriage to preserve young men for war. Valentine invited young lovers to come to him in secret, where he joined them in the sacrament of matrimony.
The emperor attempted to convert Valentine to the Roman gods to save him from certain death. Valentine refused to renounce Christianity and imprudently tried to convert the emperor. Valentine was clubbed, stoned, and beheaded on 14 February, 269 AD.
In 496 AD, Pope Gelasius I named 14 February St Valentine’s Day.
The beloved story of St Valentine still bears his name as patron of love, but none or a few remember him on that day.
Some Christians may still hold mass for the martyred saint, but the masses rush to send cards, flowers, candy, and perfumes.
Valentine has become a merchandising dream. Business stripped away the saint bit, making it a day to celebrate romantic love.
Approximately, a billion cards are sent on Valentine’s Day, second only to Christmas.
Like tender words of love, flowers are also fervent expressions of our deepest feelings. For more than 50,000 years people have placed flowers on graves of lost loved ones. Flowers are the main item of decorations at weddings as a symbol of joy, beauty, and fidelity.
From weddings to funerals and every occasion in between, flowers express our finest feelings, as the florists say: “everything is more beautiful with flowers.” The red rose is a special favourite for its fragrance and loveliness, but also for its colour of a beating heart.
Online flower sales estimate $5 billion will be spent this week on flowers.
Chocolates have their best day in sales, reaching $2.2 billion. Why chocolate? It is an edible declaration of love and tastes good too. The Aztecs of Mexico considered the cacao beans an aphrodisiac, long before Columbus sailed the seven seas. It contains a substance that “inflames desire and makes the beloved one more open to romance.” Who knew?
A veritable bonanza, merchants produce every article you can think of. Jewellers produce heart-shaped items of brilliant diamonds, rubies, and garnets. Perfumers entice you with exotic fragrances of sensual passion. Heart-shaped cakes, mousses, and crème brûlée are de riguer on every menu. Melodies of love seduce your songs on CDs and Videos. Valentine motifs printed on every item of clothing tempt both sexes. Who can resist falling in love, even in February?
What is this thing called love, you ask. It is simply a change in the chemistry of your brain when you meet someone you are attracted to. That well-known, love-related chemical is phenyl-ethylamine (PEA), closely related to amphetamine, producing the same effects as the drug itself. This natural “upper” brought about by the release of PEA contributes to that “on the top of the world” feeling, of people “in love”. That is why new lovers are capable of spending all night long on the telephone.
Scientists believe that chocolates release the same stimulants. The PEA sets off a chemical chain reaction, releasing the neuro-transmitter dopamine — the “feel good” chemical, similar to adrenaline.
The repeated release of dopamine induces a positive learning experience in the brain between the “new love” and the “good feeling”, driving us to repeat the stimulus by seeking more contact with the person who caused the initial release.
Dopamine is as potent as morphine, making you feel better as long as the stimulus is present.
How long will those chemicals work their magic?
Some analysts believe that after a certain period between 18 months and four years the body develops a tolerance to the brain’s natural highs — passionate romance “cools down” into what anthropologist Helen Fisher, author of Anatomy of Love, calls “attachment”. That is another story for another day.
Today we celebrate love, thanks to the martyred saint. If you are not in love, this is the day to catch your million stars as the sound of your million guitars serenade you as you sway.
Dress up in your rosy reds and hopefully blind Cupid will aim his arrow at your beating heart.
Life is brief. No need to wait till spring. “Birds do it, bees do it.”
You too can do it. Just fall in love.
“Where there is love, there is life.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)
* A version of this article appears in print in the 13 February, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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