Source: CCTV.com

02-05-2009 18:04

United States

In the United States and Canada, Valentine’s Day is an extremely popular festival. Here, the day is observed as a holiday. Originally held to honor St Valentine and express love to sweethearts, the scope of the day has come to be so widened that it has now become an occassion to express gratitude and love to not only sweethearts and spouses, but also to teachers, parents or any other close relation or acquaintance. The modern celebrations of the day sees people complementing their dear ones with gifts that include popular items as cards, fresh flowers like rose, chocolates and candies. Dinner and dance parties are specially organized all over the country to celebrate the occasion. Many couples hold private celebrations in homes or restaurants and gift flowers, a box of candy, or some other present to one another. Sending candies on Valentine's Day has been a very popular tradition and it still is. Most valentine candy boxes are heart-shaped and tied with red ribbon. These contain tiny pastel-colored candies shaped like hearts with some lovely messages like "Be Mine", "Thank You" or "Cool Dude" printed on them.

In the US, children celebrate Valentine's Day with great enthusiasm. In keeping with their interest, many schools hold Valentine's Day programmes where little students perform songs, dance, skits and plays. Kids handcraft gifts and cards on this occassion and present them to their friends and teachers. In some schools, the children organize a classroom party and put all the valentines into a box they have decorated. The celebration culminates with a teacher or child distributing the cards. Older students construct candy baskets and gifts, and place on them cards trimmed with hearts and fat, winged children called cupids. They also organize dances and parties. A collective endeavor is made to make the day a special one.

Britain

In Britain, St Valentine's Day is celebrated with great fanfare and gaiety. Like in many other countries, the common celebrations of the day has people expressing love for their beloved with gifts like flowers, cards, chocolates and other special items. The traditions of the celebrations of Valentine's Day differs in different regions of the country but one uniform custom is the singing of special songs by children. All over Britain, children sing special songs related to the occassion and are rewarded with gifts like candy, fruit or money. Another popular tradition followed in some areas of England is the baking of valentine buns with caraway seeds, plums, or raisins. This is believed to be a way of celebrating agarian productivity. This connection with fertility and the similar date of celebration are probably the reasons why many writers link the festival of Lupercalia with Valentine's Day.