Day of Love and Friendship!!

A priest named Valentine, 18 centuries ago, was the character who inspired the tradition of the Day of Love and Friendship in the middle of the Roman Empire.

Emperor Claudius II decided to prohibit the celebration of marriage so that the unmarried, without a wife and children, would become better soldiers. Valentin secretly celebrated marriages, hence his figure stood as the patron saint of lovers. Saint Valentine was immortalized, as patron saint of lovers, 220 years after his death and, his day, on February 14, the anniversary of his death.

Today, this is one of the best-known saints and their celebration, one of the most commercialized Catholic holidays. And here in Puerto Vallarta and Riviera Nayarit, it surely won’t be the exception.

Balloons, hearts, stuffed animals, chocolates will coexist for a moment with the memory of songs, books, films and photographs. And of course, the flowers that, in celebrations like this, are one of the best gifts. All this is welcome, for those who enjoy them and do not wish to interfere with anyone’s wishes.

The important thing is that we take advantage of this day to make it “a day of expressing something”, affection, love, feeling, companionship, solidarity or sadness, it is worth it.

And if we can come together – with all the care – to make this February 14 a camping of feelings, it will be much better. It will always be a pleasure to share this day and many more dates with the person you love.

For those who can enjoy the stories of their parents, uncles, godparents, friends, it would be wonderful to be able to find out how they began their relationships, how they met, the letters, the cinema, the mariachis, the poems, as a memory of times that surely, many, will say were better.

But those who for different reasons have to spend the day in solitude, will celebrate all the types of love that make your life special: your health, your environment, your pets, the sea, the mountains and everything that can make you feel better, even help others, who, you never know, what are the struggles that each one carries.

There are opportunities to find ourselves in loneliness, sadness and pain, but it means that we are sentient beings, and that we have life. And none of that will be able to succumb to the onslaught of the marketing trends of chocolates and hearts.

And if it comes to songs, movies, books or poems, to celebrate by Frank Sinatra, Edith Piaf, The Beatles; by Woody Allen, by Sabines, by Laura Esquivel, Benedetti, Chavela Vargas and all those who have given us something to love.

February 14 has the particularity of placing itself on the side of those who celebrate it and adopting the most necessary form to welcome those who accompany it, in this half of the second month of the year.