Panorama.am
13:15 14/02/2009

TWO HOLIDAYS IN ONE DAY

On February 14, the Armenian Church celebrates the Feast of the
Lord’s Presentation to the Temple. Tiarn’ndaraj,
or Candlemas as it is known in the West, symbolizes the presentation
of the 40 day-old Christ Child to the Temple in Jerusalem.

A few years ago the Supreme Patriarch of All Armenians declared
Tiarn’ndaraj the day of blessing the new married.

Legenda Aurea still providing no connections whatsoever with
sentimental love, appropriate lore has been embroidered in modern
times to portray Valentine as a priest who refused an unattested law
attributed to Roman Emperor Claudius II, allegedly ordering that young
men remain single. The Emperor supposedly did this to grow his army,
believing that married men did not make for good soldiers. The priest
Valentine, however, secretly performed marriage ceremonies for young
men. When Claudius found out about this, he had Valentine arrested and
thrown in jail. In an embellishment to The Golden Legend, on the
evening before Valentine was to be executed, he wrote the first
`valentine’ himself, addressed to a young girl variously identified as
his beloved, as the jailer’s daughter whom he had befriended and
healed, or both. It was a note that read `From your Valentine.’

Within the centuries St. Valentine’s holiday has been
decorated newly. In Japan it is used to prepare gifts for the men. And
the most popular gifts are perfume, chocolate, wallet, etc. Germans
think that Valentine is the protector of the insane people and they
decorate psychiatric hospitals. Americans were the first to get use of
the day and start business on it preparing Valentine cards and selling
them.

Source: Panorama.am