More than love

Valentine's Day has its inner flame. It's incredible that a simple saint (and I don't mean to sound sarcastic, seriously!) can produce so much love in the world, transformed into different forms, ironies and plagiarisms. While you're busy scouring the internet for chocolate and flower deals, let's take a tour of love traditions and curiosities around the world.

Let's start with Brazil, where not only soccer, with its five World Cup championships, and samba spread joy worldwide, but also the famous (pardon my Portuguese) Dia dos Namorados. In the land of Pelé, Gilberto Gil, Bolsonaro, Jorge Amado, Rita Lee and Marina Lima, dopamine festivity is celebrated on June 12th in honor of San Antonio de Padua, a famous matchmaker (like a human tinder). There, dating couples exchange gifts and cards... As if they didn't already have enough with the Carnival celebrated in February! But hey, that's Brazil. Period.

Its neighbor, Colombia, cultivates love by the tons, in addition to coffee. The celebration is called "El Día del Amor y la Amistad" and is celebrated on the third Saturday of September. But knowing Colombia like the back of my hand, basically because I'm Colombian, I can assure you it's also celebrated on February 14th. So, my dear homeland spreads love from February to September, only to continue with Christmas. In other words, it's no wonder we're the happiest country in the world. And love has a lot to do with it.

China also shines: It's called Qi Qiao Jie, the day when girls showcase their skills (like sewing and embroidery) to find a partner. It's celebrated on the seventh day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar.

While I ponder over sewing and embroidery, let me ask you, the one reading this: Have you updated your Tinder photo to "seamstress" mode yet? (Just kidding).

Argentina, the land of Messi, Charly Garcta, Soda Stereo, Spinetta, Borges, The Pope, and Milei, it's quite curious: Love is celebrated not only on Valentine's Day but also with an entire week preceding Friendship Day (July 20th): the "sweetness week." During these days, candies and kisses are exchanged. Honestly, it seems like a stroke of genius from our Argentine friends because they, born of Italian tragedy and living in the eternal sadness of tango, find a way to recover from a broken heart with sugar, alfajores, and hugs.

Jumping to the heart of love and friendship, let's take a look at Central America (and I'm not talking about Kansas), where they celebrate the Day of Love and Friendship grandly. People play "Secret Friend" to exchange gifts, which surprisingly often turn out to be chocolates and flowers. Who would've guessed?

Moving a bit south, we come to the land of lakes and volcanoes, Nicaragua, where its Day of Affection is a celebration of family and friends. Imagine, an entire day dedicated to those people who put up with you even when you go overboard with your bad jokes.

Passing through Mexico, I find they have a whole day, July 30th (I love it because it's my birthday), reserved for celebrating friends and another for celebrating Valentine's Day. I was speechless when I found out. I think we have to acknowledge the Mexicans for the cleverness of dividing love and friendship celebrations on different days.

But if there's a powerful Valentine's Day, it's the one in my second home, the country where I live, where my wife is from, and where my children were born: the great United States of America, which welcomed me with love since I set foot on this land. Here, we get very loving (including those from Seattle and surroundings, which is already a miracle) on February 14th.

But more than knowing the dates, it's key to know who the heck was Saint Valentine. Ok: Saint Valentine was a Christian priest who lived in the 3rd century in Rome. Valentine's Day is attributed to him due to his supposed practice of secretly marrying Roman soldiers, defying the orders of Emperor Claudius II, who had prohibited marriages. The festivity is associated with love and friendship in honor of Saint Valentine's act of uniting couples in marriage, becoming a symbol of romance and affection.

However, the matter of love and its celebrations was not entirely civilized as it may seem. The celebration before the famous Valentine's Day was called the "Lupercalia," and it had little or nothing to do with flowers or chocolates. The fertility festival in Rome was literally a wild frenzy: men ran naked through the streets whipping women with goat skins. Although, just thinking about it, I imagine my wife and I on a romantic night chasing each other around the apartment with a goat's leg to give each other a few spanks. I think it could be a good, absolutely eccentric erotic fun that would leave us with a clearly special Valentine's Day memory.

In any case, with or without a goat's leg, the world is full of love, total love, and complete friendship. Now, with networks and interconnections, romantic relationships connect not necessarily from body to body but yearning and loving through a webcam. Furthermore, international friendships celebrate that love in various languages. Not long ago, I saw a couple on their first date carrying their cell phones with a simultaneous translation app, and although dinner took longer than expected, it progressed successfully. After all, the language of love often transcends words.

What I mean is that love and friendship will always be the feelings and affections that make us human. Whether you're from a lost village in the Amazon or as "effusive" as a resident of Washington State, it's on February 14th when your heart warms up a bit and beats in unison on a global map of love. Valentine's Day, regardless of its form, gives us the opportunity to reconnect, reformulate our feelings, and truly celebrate our soulmates, whether they are our partners, our friends, or even our beloved pets. Because I must say that dogs and cats are increasingly loved by humans than humans themselves. Take a note about it.

Anyway, despite the fact that commercialism shines brighter than a diamond on that approaching day, pure love and friendship are capable of continuing to change our world.

Now buy a good goat's leg online and celebrate like a savage while dancing "Valentine's Day" of Bowie.