Clergy from various traditional religious denominations in Russia have expressed that Valentine's Day, celebrated on February 14, holds no significance within their respective faiths, asserting its foreign origins and lack of alignment with their religious practices. Representatives from different religious backgrounds shared their perspectives with TASS.
"For us, it is not a holiday of any kind, it is all - 'Valentine's Days', 'Halloween' - brought in from outside. In the Muslim tradition it is customary to love daily, to give some gifts, not just once a year, and we follow these precepts. We have our own national holidays, and we have enough of them, there are many holidays, thank God, and they carry spiritual and moral values," said Mufti Rushan Abbyasov, Deputy Chairman of the Religious Board of Muslims of the Russian Federation.
Church publicist and missionary, teacher of Ivanovo-Voznesensk Theological Seminary Hieromonk Macarius (Markish) recalled that St. Valentine was the bishop of the city of Interamna, who was martyred for his confession of faith at the hands of persecutors of Christians in Rome. According to him, the Orthodox calendar also has a memorial day for this saint, but it does not fall on February 14. As Father Macarius noted, the reason why the Western tradition correlated the memory of St. Valentine with Valentine's Day is not clear, since there is very little reliable information about the lives of early Christian martyrs, including Valentine.
"February 14 is the middle of February, according to the Western European natural calendar - the moment when spring comes, when the swallows arrive, return and begin to build their nests. That is why the date of St. Valentine's Day, which is celebrated there on that day, was associated with family and with marriage. And then they forgot about marriage, and it all became associated with extramarital sexual relations," the priest suggested. In the Russian Church, he added, the patron saints Peter and Fevronia of Murom are considered the patrons of family and marriage, and it is to the day of their memory that the Day of Family, Love and Fidelity (July 8) is celebrated in Russia.
Jews, Israelis also have their own analog of All Lovers' Day - the holiday of 15 Av (Tu be-Av) in August, said the chief military rabbi of Russia, Aaron Gurevich. "On the day of 15 Av in ancient times there were many joyful events, and it is believed, in particular, that this day is good for matchmaking, for creating new families. And the Talmud says that it is a day when girls from poor families could borrow more expensive outfits from someone and show themselves as attractive brides. The search for a groom is also the plot of the 15th of Av," Gurevich said.
The rabbi characterized the tradition of celebrating Valentine's Day as "belonging more to the Anglo-Saxon community." The permanent representative of the Buddhist Traditional Sangha of Russia in Moscow, Sanzhei Lama (Andrei Balzhirov), also noted that the idea of celebrating Valentine's Day is in no way close to Buddhists. "It has no significance for us, we have our own traditional holidays," he added.
Valentine's Day is widely celebrated in Western countries and other parts of the world. The Christian ascetic Valentine was executed in Rome in the late 3rd century and canonized as a martyr in the 5th century. His life was later covered with many legends, which formed the basis of the history of the holiday celebrated as Valentine's Day on February 14. In particular, it is believed that the martyr against the will of the Roman emperor concluded marriages according to the Christian rite forbidden at that time.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Rachel Walker/Unsplash
Based on materials from TASS