“The Youth’s Confusion to Celebrate or Not to Celebrate Valentine’s Day… that is the question”

Valentine’s Day is approaching this weekend. Red is the color of this day’s celebrations; with red gifts including stuffed red hearts, red teddies, red décor and all other things being red. Chocolates, red flowers and romantic cards are also part and parcel of the package. May it be gifts, candies or flowers; everything is available in a size and price to suit your pocket and Valentine.

We have come to a point where our youth barely gives a moment of reflection as to why we celebrate this day, what’s the history, how did Valentine’s Day come into existence, who was St. Valentine, what’s the meaning of this day and other such questions. The youth seems to be interested mostly in celebrating the day, expressing their love for their spouses or friends, going out for romantic dinners or outings and so on. 

Amongst all this fanfare, the retailers’only concern seems to be cashing in on this splurging behavior by providing offers customized for this occasion, giving discounts and deals for their franchises / restaurants, and promoting special concessions. As the day draws nearer, one can see sprouting red balloons, red gift items, red stuffed toys and chocolates on every corner as the celebrations reach full bloom in Pakistan.

Reviewing this behavior, the youth seems to be inspired by yet another part of western culture. They seem confused between celebrating, not celebrating, hiding their inclination towards 14^th February from their elders, or bring expressive in their desires to celebrate it. There are mixed feelings and misconceptions in their minds.

In such a scenario, forbidding or banning the celebrations of Valentine’s Day is not going to be of much help. It is a psychology of a person to bite the forbidden fruits. Likewise, bans and prohibitions are going to make the youth retaliate. They should be guided in a proper manner.

Jolta News provides a platform where they are playing the role of a guide or a counselor for the youth. They have felt the need to inculcate amongst the citizens our own identity. Promoting our own culture and remaining steadfast with it shall lead us not to fall prey to following western culture blindly. We also understand that at such a time, when the youth have fallen prey to celebrating Valentine’s Day, we need to guide them away from it in a subtle manner. We should remain positive and slowly make them comprehend that this is not a part of the Muslim or Pakistani culture. 

Extra marital friendships or “Valentines” are not a part of our religion. Another strategy to overcome this is to promote our own culture and encourage the youth to be a part of it. Where the Valentine’s Day celebrations are taking place at an increasing pace, retailers, franchisers and others who wish to play the role of a guide and counselor should provide the youth with other meaningful activities to participate in. For instance if constructive entertainment options are provided on 14^th February each year, more and more youngsters will opt for those rather than celebrating love and romance. This way they can be guided towards thinking more broadly. We need to influence them at this tender age that ‘love’ is not the ultimate thing in the world, rather there are many more intriguing and productive elements to aspire for. Jolta News wants to guide our youth to get out of chasing these trends and emerge as the generation who aims high and are leaders rather than followers.