by Obefiend (@obefiend)
The truth about Valentine’s Day is more heretical to its supposed Christian origins than local dailies would want you to believe.
Every year without fail we will start seeing articles condemning Valentine’s Day as a day that should not be celebrated by Muslims in Malaysia. One of the most used and rehashed (they rehashed the article annually since god knows when) story is St Valentine was a martyr who died helping the Christians took over Cordoba from the Muslims during Queen Isabella’s reign.
Because of his sacrifice the day that he was buried is celebrated as St Valentine’s Day. Because of this Valentine’s Day is “haram” to most Muslims as celebrating it is akin to celebrating the downfall of Muslim empire in Spain. Sounds plausible right? Nope, it’s wrong and pure fiction.
First of all, there is no St Valentine in Spain during Queen Isabella’s (1451 –1504 AD) lifetime. In fact the only Valentine in Spain history was the brother of Saint Fructus, who died stopping the Moor’s advance into Spain in 751AD. This is a discrepancy of over 700 years between the supposed “Valentine” who helped defeat the Muslims (The Moors) and the St Valentine during Queen Isabella’s reign. Saint Fructus and his brothers’ sacrifice are remembered every October 24, during the St Fructus Feast Day. So clearly this is not the Valentine that we are looking for.
In Christendom history, there have been 7 recorded St Valentines and 11 separate Valentine’s Day that occurred on different days throughout the year. The first Valentine’s Day was in honour of Valentine of Rome (also known as Valentine of Terni) who was a priest martyred in 269AD. Not much is known about this St Valentine other than he was a priest who was buried in Via Flaminia on the 14 February.
The lack of background story regarding this first St Valentine lead historians to believe that Valentine’s Day was created to suppress the pagan celebration of Lupercalia, a very ancient Roman pastoral festival, observed on 13 February through 15 February to avert evil spirits and purify the city. If you haven’t already known about this, early Roman Christians assimilated their pagan celebrations with their Christian beliefs. For example the pagan celebration of sun worshipping on 25 December is converted into Christmas Day despite the fact Jesus was actually born on 17 June.
It also should be noted that the early Valentine’s Day had nothing to do with neither love nor romance. This brings us to the modern day’s version of Valentine’s Day.
It is generally accepted that the modern VDay celebration started in the 19th century when a woman by the name of Esther Howland started designing cards for VDays. The celebration started in England before spreading around the world like it is today. In the ‘50s, lovers started exchanging more than just cards and the commercialisation of VDay as we know it today started. In the ‘80s DeBeers started linking diamonds with VDays and many men end up broke so that their significant others may have the in vogue diamond VDay gift.
As you can see, the modern day VDay is now perverted beyond recognition from its Christian (or is it Pagan?) origin. I would say that the modern day VDay is not even the same VDay as celebrated in 269AD or Rome for that matter. The date and name might be the same but the one being celebrated now is totally different. Sort of how Christmas and Easter are now considered “not Christian enough” by fundamentalist Christians.
Thanks to commercialism, a lot of the religious celebration is now no more than a day for capitalists to make a quick buck out of them. Only in VDay can you see a man buying roses and chocolates at twice the normal price. The free market can be such a dick come Valentine’s Day!
So why do we keep seeing factually wrong articles in Muslim-owned newspaper when VDay is just days away? I guess this is another case of fictional oral history being passed around for years and years before eventually accepted as fact. The fact that it’s repeatedly printed in magazines, newspaper, and forwarded emails only reinforces the idea that the story is legit.
“Bai.. gua baca ni dulu dalam majalah Al Islam dan Berita Harian bai. Takkan dia nak tipu so ni mesti fakta sohih ni! Apa je dia dapat dengan menipu”
“Tapi takkan ko tak nampak banyak lobang dalam cerita ni. Takda fakta langsung cuma 2-3 cerita disambung jadi satu.Tarkih pun tak ada padanan”
“Ni la kamu….. termakan dakyah setan! Pergi la sambut kalau nak masuk neraka“
“Kenapa lak aku masuk neraka kalau sambut VDay?”
“Pasal ada hadith – Sesiapa melakukan perbuatan menyerupai sesuatu kaum, maka ia termasuk bersama golongan itu”
“So you are telling me if I celebrate New Year, World Cup, AIDS day, Diabetes Day, Hari Pahlawan, Hari Guru , Hari Persahabatan dan segalanya aku masuk neraka la yek. Macam tu?”
“Ko ni memandai lah. Hari yang diilhamkan kaum kafir je haram”
“Abis ko ingat hari-hari yang aku listkan tadi tu siapa yang reka? Graduation day pun kaum kapir yang start dulu. Yang baling Mortar Board Hat masa graduation tu kapir yang start dulu! Masuk neraka la kamu nanti!“
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Majlis Fatwa should issue a fatwa on playing “mercun” during Ramadan and the two Hari Rayas. Using the same arguments they used against Valentine, I say a ban on it is long overdue.
First of all the tradition of burning fireworks is heretical in origin. The Chinese believe that by setting off fireworks they can ward off evil spirits. This is clearly not in line with the holy Islamic beliefs. Only “ayat-ayat Al-Quran” can ward off evil spirits. Not carbide and manganese stuffed into cylindrical rockets!
Furthermore plenty able-bodied Muslims were killed and maimed due to homemade “mercuns”. To add to this, the burning of fireworks disturbs the sleep of many Malaysia regardless of religion. They are just bloody annoying.
Editor’s note: This article was originally posted on Obefiend’s blog, but it has since been deleted during a site attack.
