VALENTINE'S DAY

[MZanzi]

but who knows the real story of Valentine...????

I hope that the days are all loving and happy

 

Everyday is my valentines day for me

[MAXIMUS POWERS]

i always find those who muck V.day to be those without any plans on the day!

 

TheMarc

[Dhagax-Tuur]

Aha...

 

Care to tell us how many of the last 365 days you actually showed your appreciation or love then?

 

LoL...What a cop-out.

Answer is: none of your bees-wax.

[Yaabka-Yaabkiis]

is there any history why it is named Val-day?

 

No plans at all--i will be WALKING

[MAXIMUS POWERS]

Originally posted by I_will_come_up_with_new_name:

is there any history why it is named Val-day?

 

No plans at all--i will be WALKING

Valentine's Day is a celebration of romantic love occurring annually on February 14.

 

Although it is associated by legend with a Catholic saint named Valentine, Valentine's Day is not a religious holiday and never really has been. Valentine's Day has historical roots that go back to the pagen festivities of the Greco-Roman civilizations.

 

The custom of exchanging cards and other tokens of love on February 14 began to develop slowly in England and France in the 14th and 15th centuries and became especially popular in the United States in the 19th and 20th centuries as marketing techniques began to develop. Over the last decade or so, Valentine's Day observance due to the international nature of business and marketing, has even spread to the Far East, India, and the Middle East.

 

The association of the middle of February with love and fertility dates to ancient times. In ancient Athens, the period between mid-January and mid-February was the month of Gamelion, which was dedicated to the sacred marriage of the pagen 'gods' Zeus and Hera.

 

In ancient Rome, February 15 was Lupercalia, the festival of Lupercus (or Faunus), the pagen 'god' of fertility. As part of the purification ritual, the priests of Lupercus would sacrifice goats and a dog to the 'god' and after drinking wine, they would run through the streets of Rome striking anyone they met with pieces of the goat skin. Young women would come forth voluntarily for the occasion, believing that being touched by the goat skin would render them fertile. Young men would also draw names from an urn, choosing their "blind date" for the coming year. In 494 AD the Christian church under Pope Gelasius I appropriated the some aspects of the rite as the Feast of the Purification.

 

In Christianity, at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus, all of them martyrs, are mentioned in the early lives of the saints under the date of February 14. Two of the Valentines lived in Italy in the third century: one as a priest at Rome, the other as bishop of Terni. They are both said to have been martyred in Rome and buried on the Flaminian Way. A third St. Valentine was martyred in North Africa and very little else is known of him.

 

Several legends have developed around one or more of these Valentines, two of which are especially popular. According to one account, Emperor Claudius II outlawed marriage for all young men because he believed unmarried men made better soldiers. Valentine defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young couples and was put to death by the emperor for it. A related legend has Valentine writing letters from prison to his beloved, signing them "From your Valentine."

 

However, the connection between St. Valentine and romantic love is not mentioned in any early histories and is regarded by historians as purely a matter of legend. The feast of St. Valentine was first declared to be on February 14 by Pope Gelasius I around 498. It is said the pope created the day to counter the practice held on Lupercalia, but this is not attested in any sources from that era.

 

It became common during the 15th century for lovers to exchange notes on Valentine's Day and to call each other their "Valentines." The first Valentine card was sent by Charles, duke of Orleans, to his wife in 1415 when he was a prisoner in the Tower of London. Valentine's Day love notes were often given anonymously. It is probable that many of the legends about St. Valentine developed during this period. By the 1850s, romantics in France began embellishing their valentine cards with gilt paper, ribbons and lace.

 

Valentine's Day was probably imported into North America in the 19th century with settlers from Britain. In the United States, the first mass-produced valentines of embossed paper lace were produced and sold shortly after 1847 by Esther A. Howland of Worcester, Massachusetts. Her father operated a large book and stationery store.

 

But in 1969, as part of a larger effort to pare down the number of saint days of legendary origin, the Church removed St. Valentine's Day as an official holiday from its calendar.

 

Due to industrialisation and the move towards crass capitalism, hand written notes gave way to the exchange of mass-produced greeting cards. Massive publicity campaigns meant that these cards were no longer given just to lovers, but also to friends, family, classmates and coworkers.

 

The Greeting Card Association estimates that approximately one billion valentine cards are sent worldwide each year, making Valentine's Day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year, behind Christmas.

 

In the last 50 years or so, especially in the United States, as a means of making more money on the festivity, the practice of exchanging cards was extended to include the giving of gifts. Starting in the 1980s, the diamond industry began to promote Valentine's Day as an occasion for the giving of fine jewelry.

 

The restaurant business also encouraged the celebration of Valentines day. Due to a mass publicity campaign, females began to expect their partners to take them out for a romantic dinner date on Valentine's Day.

 

Valentine's Day has become a multi-million pound industry,consumers are blitzed with deals to tug on the purse-strings via emotioanl blackmail.

 

The average male spends between £30 to £70 on a loved one on that day alone.

 

Spending money on your loved one is of course not the problem. The problem lies in the fact that we allow ourselves to be manipulated by a profit driven system where we are seen as nothing but consumers.

 

It would be an offense for me to receive a gift from my loved one on this particular day, as i would question the integrity of the gift. Surely if you love someone you do not need an advertising campaign to remind you to love them a little extra on one particular day.

 

That is the problem with valentines day, mothers day, fathers day and all these other consumer holidays. Rather than tackling the real issues of human interaction. of parent-child relationship and of the love between a husband and wife, in a society that has lost is moral compass, these holidays attempt to manipulate peoples vulnerability.

 

These multinational profit making machines while pretending to encourage the good human characteristic of love, fail to care about the thousands of girls who lose their virginity on this night, to guys they most probably will have no communication with what so ever a few weeks or months down the line. They do not care about the number of young teens that get pregnant on this night. They care little about the internal strife these young teenagers go through as a result of the immense pressure placed upon them by society to have a lover.

 

If you love someone show them just how much by treating them in the best manner you can all the time, respecting their rights over you. Whether that be your mother, father,husband or neighbor. Just because there isn't an internationally celebrated Neighbors day doesn't mean you cant give your neighbor a card or a gift now and then no?

 

If you love someone this valentines day, show them how much, by explaining to them the hoax that is Valentines day.

[Yaabka-Yaabkiis]

^^^ we should not celeberate or appreciate it as Maalinta Jaceylak then....

[Kool_Kat]

Originally posted by rudy:

So ppl how do u yall think she got the babe-gal? I hope you dont think that she laid and egg and sat on top of it...! lol

 

waxeey iidin leedahay ee idiin qarineeysa... go get your faarax to put lil ones in your oven!!

 

u xalimoos didnt get it!!

Isku dirka dhaaf hee adi, ani saas kama wadinee...

[ONE SOMALIA]

Muslim's cant celebrate this day and here is the reason.

 

 

The Muslim's attitude towards this holiday should be clear:

 

1- He should not celebrate it, or join others in their celebrations of it, or attend their celebrations because it is forbidden to celebrate the festivals of non-Muslims.

 

Ath-Thahabi said: "If the Christians have a festival and the Jews have a festival, which is peculiar to them, then the Muslim should not join them in that, just as he does not join them in their religion or their direction of prayer."

 

This is so because the basic principles of the pious predecessors [As-Salaf As-Saalih] was Al-walaa' wal-baraa' (loyalty and friendship vs. disavowal and enmity), therefore, it is obligatory for every Muslim to follow this principle. He should love the Muslims and should not follow the non-Muslims; rather, he must be different from them. By doing so, he achieves immeasurable benefits, just as imitating them causes greater harm.

In addition to this, when the Muslims imitate non-Muslims, this makes the latter happy and fills their hearts with joy. If any Muslim girl celebrates this holiday because she sees Margaret or Hilary or whoever does so, then this undoubtedly reflects the fact that she is imitating them and approves of their behavior. But Allaah Says (what means): "O you who have believed, do not take the Jews and the Christians as allies. They are [in fact] allies of one another. And whoever is an ally to them among you - then indeed, he is [one] of them. Indeed, Allaah guides not the wrongdoing people." [Quran 5:51]

 

One of the bad effects of imitating them is that this increases their number, as this makes it look as if they have more supporters and followers. How can it be appropriate for a Muslim who recites in every Rak'ah (prayer unit) Allaah’s words (which mean): "Guide us to the Straight Way, The way of those on whom You have bestowed Your Grace, not (the way) of those who earned Your Anger, nor of those who went astray" [ Quran 1:6-7], to ask Allaah for guidance to the Straight Path of the believers and to keep him away from the path of those who have earned His anger and of those who went astray, and then deliberately follows their path and imitates them?

 

Statistics indicate that Valentine's Day is second only to Christmas in popularity. So it is clear that the Feast of Love is one of the festivals of non-Muslims and that it is second only to the festival of Christmas. So it is not permissible for Muslims to participate in such celebrations, because we are commanded to differ from them in their religion, customs and other things that exclusively belong to them, as is stated in the Quran, Sunnah (Prophet’s tradition) and scholarly consensus.

 

2- He should not help the non-Muslims in their celebrations because it is one of the rituals of disbelief. Helping them and approving of what they do is helping them to manifest disbelief and make it prevail, and approving of it. The Islamic religion does not allow a Muslim to approve of disbelief or help others to manifest it and make it prevail.

 

Hence, Ibn Taymiyyah said: "It is not permissible for the Muslims to imitate them in anything that is specifically part of their festivals, whether it is food, clothing, bathing, lighting fires, or changing a custom of daily life or worship."

 

3- He should not help any Muslims who celebrate it. Rather, it is obligatory to denounce them, because for the Muslims to celebrate the festivals of non-Muslims is an evil action which must be condemned. Ibn Taymiyah said: "Just as we should not imitate them in their festivals, we should not help a Muslim to do that as well; rather, he should be told not to do that."

 

Based on this, it is not permissible for Muslim businessmen to deal in gifts for Valentine's Day, whether they are particular kinds of clothes, red roses, or whatever. Similarly, it is not permissible for the one who is given a gift on this occasion to accept it, because by accepting it, he is showing approval of this holiday.

 

One Daa’iyah (caller to Islam) said: we went to a flower shop in one of the Muslim countries and we were shocked to find it completely prepared for this occasion, with red carpets at the entrance, red placards and red decorations. We were met by one of the people who worked there, and we asked him why they had done so much to decorate the place for this occasion.

 

He said that these preparations had begun early, and that there had been so many orders… Then he told us that he had been amazed by that, because he was a new Muslim who had left Christianity. He had known about that before he became Muslim, so how come his customers were Muslims and not Christians?

 

Other shops ran out of red roses, which were being sold at high prices. When one of the female Du’aat entered upon the female students who were gathered in the lecture hall, she was dismayed to find them all carrying something red. One had a red rose, another had a red scarf, or a red handkerchief, or a red bag, or red socks…

 

Among the things that have been seen among the Muslims on this holiday:

 

a- All the female students agreeing with their friends to tie a red ribbon on the right wrist.

 

b- Wearing something red (a blouse, hair clip, shoes…). This reached such an extent last year that when we entered the classroom we found most of the students wearing it, as if it was a uniform.

 

c- Red balloons on which are written the words "I love you". They usually bring these out at the end of the school day, in an area far from where the teachers can see them.

 

d- Writing names and hearts on their hands, or just initials.

 

e- Red roses are widespread on this day.

 

Groups of girls entered their lecture rooms on February 14, each of them wearing something red, with red heart-shaped stickers on their faces, wearing red make-up. They started to exchange red-colored gifts and kiss one another warmly. This happened in more than one university in the Muslim world, even in an Islamic university. In other words, they were celebrating Saint Valentine's Day.

 

On that day, secondary schools (high schools) were astonished by the large numbers of female students who brought red roses of the finest quality, colored their faces with red cosmetics, wore red earrings, and started to exchange gifts and warm greetings, in celebration of this day.

 

Valentine's Day has come to a number of Arab and Muslim countries, and has even reached the healtrand of Islam (the Arabian Peninsula). It has reached societies which we had thought far removed from this insanity. In Riyadh, the price of roses has risen incredibly, to an extent that a single rose costs 36 riyals (10 dollars), whereas before this day it cost 5 riyals. Gift shops and card shops compete in designing cards and gifts for this occasion, and some families hang up red roses in the windows of their homes on this day.

 

In some of the Muslim countries, shopping centers and hotels have organized special celebrations for Valentine's Day. Most of the stores and business places are covered in red. One of the finest Gulf hotels was full of balloons and dolls. Following the customs of the Feast of Love and the pagan myths, one restaurant owner put on a dramatic production with "Cupid", the idol of love in the Roman myths, nearly naked and carrying a bow and arrow. He and his cohorts were looking to select "Mr. & Mrs. Valentine" from among the people present.

 

Less expensive restaurants also celebrated this day in their own way. Some stores replaced their regular plates with heart-shaped plates, used red tablecloths and linens, and put a red rose on each table for the man to present to his beloved.

 

We must oppose these things by all possible means. The responsibility rests with us all.

 

4- We should not accept congratulations on Valentine's Day, because it is not a holiday or an ‘Eed for the Muslims. If the Muslim is congratulated on this occasion, he should not return the congratulation. Ibn Al-Qayyim said: "With regard to congratulating others with the congratulations used by the non-Muslims on such occasions, it is prohibited by scholarly consensus, such as congratulating them on the occasion of their festivals or fasts, wishing them a blessed festival, etc.

 

Finally, we must explain the true nature of this holiday and other festivals of the non-Muslims to those Muslims who have been deceived by them, and explain to them that it is essential for the Muslim to be distinguished by his religion and to protect his 'Aqeedah (belief) from anything that may damage it. This should be done towards the Ummah (Muslim nation) for the sake of Allaah and in fulfillment of the command of enjoining good and forbidding evil.

 

 

here

 

click on valentine's day

[Blessed]

It's actually St Valentines Day but the meaning has changed dramatically over the centuries. I personally find it a bit naf, I call it maalinta adhiga iyo bacaacda.

 

Anyway... Happy Red Day, for thos of you who celebrate..

[MZanzi]

looooool@maalinti ariga iyo bacaacda

that was classic

[Jacaylbaro]

loooooooooooool@blessed ,,,

 

 

Well, i'm receiving calls and msgs that there are a hell of parties this time in hargeisa ,, almost everywhere ,,,,

[Kool_Kat]

^Calls and msgs for what party? Vday party? In Hargeysa? OK and my name is Janet Smith-Jones...

[Jacaylbaro]

Yep ,, Val-party

 

 

and is gonna be smoking i tell ya ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

[-Lily-]

Happy b'day to your girl KK! May she always have a happy and healthy life & continue to be a joy for her parents.

[Ibtisam]

One of the students gave our lecturer flowers this morning. :confused: I'm sure that is illegal.