Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Valentines Day : Celebrate or not?

The Jewish Journal has an article on the pros and cons of celebrating Valentines day. Here are some reason not to:

1) You don’t need a “day” to tell someone you love them. Valentine’s Day is just a “Hallmark holiday” anyway.

2) It is named for Valentine, a priest. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he outlawed marriage for young men. Valentine, realizing how unfair that was, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages in secret — until he got caught and was sent to prison. As Jews, we don’t celebrate holidays named for priests.

3) Jews have a similar holiday called Tu B’Av (the 15th of Av), which celebrates love and marriage, so we don’t need to celebrate Valentine’s Day.

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1 comment:

Zoe Strickman said...

I think the mere fact that Valentine's Day is based on a priest should be reason enough to DAVKA NOT celebrate it.

Plus, why would you need a special day to honor the one you love?? Should you do that every day? I mean it.