Happy Valentine's Day to everyone: the question on our minds would be what is Valentine's Day all about? Could be that Valentine's Day is about getting flowers, love cards, buying gifts, receiving gifts or mind blowing surprises only?. I am not going to bother you with numerous variations of the origin of Valentine's Day instead I will prefer we stick with the most recent origin which is based on the Catholic church declaration of Valentine's Day to honour St Valentine for his immense contributions to the global concept of love and affection.
The purpose of celebrating Valentine's Day is very simple and straightforward. It is normal practice in the world to always show love to one another, but having a day to properly celebrate this virtue was important. Although, growing up as a child, I have always had the impression that those who were older than me were simply using Valentine's Day for youth exuberance as I could see them parading themselves around with the colour red. It took me time as I grew older to understand that my impression was wrong, it was a case of how people chose to celebrate it.
How Valentine Day is celebrated in Nigeria and what you need to know about those celebrating it
The first important celebration in our country Nigeria,is the New Year which is followed by prolonged days in January with a touch of 'Sapa' ( sapa is a Nigerian slang which means Suffer, hardship,etc). The month of February provides relieve from the Sapa experienced in January, with exactly two weeks to Valentine. The hype of Valentine's Day is usually low during the first week of the month, it would also appear as though the country had forgotten about the upcoming day but this acute dementia is quickly corrected in seven days by the Association of Boutique Owners of Nigeria ( A.B.O.N). They swiftly ensure that all of the clothes, shoes, bags, belts and even scarves appear in red which is the colour of love, all other brands and colour of clothes are removed.Nigerians are quite observant , so they instantly realise that "Valentine is coming".
It would be hypocritical not to state that lovers make up about 90% of people involved in the celebration, hence i decided to list six categories of people you would find on Valentine's Day. They are namely:
■ Grand Planners or Organisers: These are mostly online vendors who advertise lover's present purchases. They normally present to you a list of different packages that are available at various prices based on your budget. I believe the lowest amount is around 5,000 Naira($12).
This image was shared to me by my friend @vickee who is a vendor.
The vendors are not the only ones who plan ahead, we have ladies who begin to drop wish lists for their loved ones, informing everyone on their social media platforms what they desire for Valentine. It is also a great opportunity for anons or simps to know what they should get. For the guys, it is all about finding the best restaurants, fulfilling wishlists and paying vendors ahead. It may surprise you to learn that most ladies ensure that they plan to treat their partner well, getting valuable gifts rather than the regular " singlets and boxers" or rushing to social media to crown the partner "king of invisible kingdoms".
■ Single Ones: This is the most popular category, I would love to share a video clip from the amazing Kabusa Choir,it is the national anthem for them during Valentine.
These are members of the "awwwwn" ministry, they are mainly seen on the internet posting memes, pleading with their friends to reduce tensioning them with posts. They are actively involved in reposting photos and videos of their friends who are actually celebrating valentine. I know a couple of friends who admitted that they do get depressed when they see such activities online on Valentine's Day. They result to asking rhetorical questions such as "God when", "Am I a stick", "This love where una dey see am" and so on.
Below are screenshots taken to show reactions to a valentine post.
■ Over serious ones: These individuals are uninterested in such activity; it is seen as a waste of time to them, it is often said to be a distraction from chasing money. When one of the partner tries to make a romantic gesture, it is rapidly overshadowed by discussions about how irrelevant Valentine's Day is.
■ Pessimist ones: These are the folks that tend to give the purpose of Valentine's Day a different meaning, they believe that love should be offered everyday, hence there is no need to declare a day to commemorate it. They are of the opinion that is done for youthful exuberance, they are interested in analysing the clothes, prices of gifts, etc of those celebrating the day
Romeo and Juliet: Well, I think everybody agrees that this category are the reason for the season. It is a big day for them. They express their deep love and affection to their loved ones on all the available medium. Gifting and greetings are practiced properly. They are the ones responsible for shutting down the internet.
■ The Culprits: These are the cheaters who get caught in the act on Valentine's Day. They are usually very busy on that day ensuring that they satisfy all their partners, it may include blocking and unblocking at intervals. The ones that are caught make it to Instablog and other blogs too for the wrong reasons. It would interest you to know that Valentine's Day is for love and affection but it is also for serving Breakfast ( heartbreaks)
Finally, I would like to point out that, there is an increase in the numbers of people celebrating Valentine's Day and it is no longer simply about lovers or couples. It is about showing love everywhere and to everyone. Companies are demonstrating their love for their employees and customers by gifting. Customers are receiving monetary incentives from financial institutions, and people are participating in social media giveaways, not forgetting those actively showing love to orphanage homes. I expect that as more Valentine's Day comes, we would go bigger on showing love, also appreciating how important the act of love can be. Well, the nation was designed in red colour not to show danger but to demonstrate the great love we have for ourselves and how much of it we can share.
Thanks for reading
You really took your time with this one... Lol. I am among the singles but I don't "God when" or repost or anything. I just like lying around on that day eating or reading or maybe watching Anime.
Lmaao...yes I did..I enjoyed it... lol...you watch anime??...anime lovers are taking over our peaceful world😭😭
Which peaceful world? Mtchw. The only peaceful place is not in this world 😂. Yes. I watch anime.
😂😂😂😂...