February is known as the month of love and romance. Why is that? On February 14 there is a holiday that is celebrated called Valentine’s Day. The holiday started as a Christian feast honoring a man named Valentine who was killed while preaching in Rome in the third century. Valentine was killed on February 14, 269 AD. Since then Christians adopted the day as a celebration and as years went on it became a cultural and commercial holiday of romance in many regions of the world. 

This month we all celebrate love. Whether it’s receiving gifts from your loved ones or giving gifts. The usual gift is chocolates and flowers, but almost always there will be a card included. “My favorite part of Valentine’s day is creating gifts for my friends,” said sophomore Savannah Maloney. “I love putting in the effort and writing the cards to show how much I love them,” added Maloney. Much effort goes into this day. Planning the gifts big or small truly does show how much someone can mean to you. 

Regardless of where the holiday came from, it is celebrated all around the world. Even though in the United States we have our normal or traditional day of celebrating, others have their unique way of showing their love. In both Japan and South Korea it is known that the women make the first move upon asking a man for a date on Valentine’s Day and then the men return the gesture on either March 14 or April 14 on “White day”. On this day men give women either white flowers or white chocolates to show their affection towards them. Finland and Estonia celebrate Friends Day on February 14. They gather gifts and other acts of kindness to honor their friends or significant others.

“Valentine’s Day is a very cute holiday. It feels good to show how much you love or even like a person,” said freshman Melody Austin. “Celebrating with friends or even family and feeling loved can help make the holiday complete,” added Austin.

Whether you are celebrating with a friend, significant other, or even a parent this day will always be the day to show love to others.