Picture Courtesy: http://qnique.in/2015/01/26/happy-valentines-week-days-date-meaning/

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner. The stores/shops are all filled with heart shaped red candies or chocolates. The gift stores are filled with stuffed teddy bears, roses and greeting cards. The traditional way of celebrating the Valentine’s Day is exchanging gifts, chocolates and teddy bears. With the significant change in time the traditional way of celebrating the Valentine’s Day has changed incomparably. Nowadays, it is not celebrated for a single day but is celebrated as a Valentine’s week.

The seven different days in a week is celebrated in seven different romantic and passionate ways to shower your partners with love. The valentine’s week starts from 7^th Feb till the 14^th of Feb.

On the 7^th of February, Rose day is celebrated. On this day couples exchange roses. Roses of different colors signify different meanings. Red rose, which is the most popular one, signifies the honest love towards each other. It is followed by the propose day. On this day, the guy asks for the girl’s hand in marriage. After that comes the chocolate day when couples exchange their favorite box of chocolates with each other. Girls are big fans of stuffed toys, mostly teddy bears, so after the chocolate day, comes the “teddy day” when, you guessed it, the guys get a stuffed teddy bear for their partners. The teddy day is followed by promise day when couples make promises to each other. After the promise day comes the kiss day when the partners show their affections by kissing each other. The hug day comes immediately after the kiss day which is another way of showing your love to your other half. And finally comes the Valentine’s Day which is celebrated all across the world in different ways.

In South Africa, women must wear their hearts on their sleeves. It means the name of the men whom they love should be pinned on their shirtsleeves. This is an ancient Roman tradition known as Lupercalia. This is how African men would find out their secret admirers.

You don’t have a Valentines on a Valentine’s Day?

Well then no need to worry because contrary to the modern culture, Valentine’s day started out as a show of admiration and love towards the people we value most in our lives, be it our family, friends or our partners. Valentine’s day is celebrated in honor of St. Valentine, a catholic priest in ancient Rome, who was killed because he did not obey the emperor’s law of Christians not being allowed to marry.  He took a stand against this law and married off couples in secrecy. St. Valentine is regarded as a martyr in the history of Rome and in order to honor him, this day is celebrated by appreciating the one thing he stood for and believed in, and that is the universal language of love.