Zawaya

“Valentine's Day": A Festivity or a non-event

By: Messaoud Allel

February 14 does not pass unnoticed to young people in the Arab Maghreb, even though many other days among the 365 days of the year have special meanings and symbols for Europeans.

February 14 is simply the Day of Love. It’s Valentine’s Day during which lovers gather to celebrate the event, each in their own way, while surrounded with unlimited romance. It’s a day for men to talk with their other halves about one thing: bouquets of roses and love.

Although “Valentine’s Day” is exotic to the Arab Maghreb and does not symbolize its culture and traditions, February 14 has become a “good” tradition for the majority of young people in the Arab Maghreb. Lovers inherited the habit and tradition of celebrating this day, due to the mixture of the Maghreb histories and cultures with the West. Valentine’s Day does not symbolize anything for many married couples for various reasons, including not recognizing European holidays, sticking to local habits and traditions, and the fact that some of them claim that every day is a festivity and a celebration of love for spouses.

Today is “Valentine’s Day” in Europe and the rest of the world. Lovers in the Arab Maghreb who “sanctify” this day, even symbolically, have also celebrated it. It has become hard to ignore young men and women spending the best and most enjoyable moments outdoors, while carrying bouquets of roses, eating chocolate, and chatting. These lovers do not care about those who do not recognize that there is a special day for every loving heart that finds a refuge in living a day that is different from the rest of the year.

Valentine’s Day is usually an opportunity for those who want to invest in the feelings and emotions of spouses and lovers. Ambulant rose sellers become the main “feature” of the streets, like any day during which women are paid particular attention to. Beautiful roses are often the best gift offered to women to express affinity, love, and noble feelings. Valentine’s Day is the best day to sell all kinds of roses, especially red ones that directly and openly express love and nothing but love.

February 14 of this year did not pass unnoticed for all young Algerians, for example. It was indeed an occasion to express love, exchange love gazes, and enjoy a day free of loose feelings that are replaced with tenderness, for this day to be written – like every February 14 – with letters of roses.

Long live noble love each day, each moment, and each time two spouses are reunited to live a happy life, with a bouquet of roses and tenderness. May all our days be huge love celebrations, be it romantic love, or appreciative and respectful love between all, so that we don’t miss the opportunity of thinking of noble feelings, for those who justify considering February 14 a non-event.