The ups and down of Valentine’s day

By Doreen Hammond
CHOCOLATES, flowers , teddy bears and the colour red, which symbolises love, dominates many parts of the city as February 14, Valentine’s day, approached.
Clothing shops dressed their mannequins in red and in One shop at Osu, a red pant adorned the frontage .
Shops which sell greeting cards and gifts are draped in red with banners advertising stocks meant for the day at attractive prices. The driving force may not be the intention to make sure Ghanaians share love but an economic one-- taking advantage of the day to make sales.There is absolutely nothing wrong with that; it is business. Or shall we say it is a matter of killing two birds with one stone? Making money and sharing love simultaneously?
Some seven years ago, Ghanaians, propelled by media hype, took the celebration of St Valentine’s day, which was not traditionally Ghanaian like Christmas , to a level never seen in this country . Many Ghanaians wore red, wine and white believed to be the colours of Valentine and made sure they bought a gift to share with a loved one. That was not strange because in today’s globalised world it becomes difficult to sit on an island touting what is exclusively Ghanaian. To a large extent, many ,especially the youth , see this Valentine love as a romantic one, between lovers and not between family members or just friends.
For most of our youth, the day was not for the single but the attached because something had to happen before the day was over.
Under trees, on beaches and dark alleys, the morning after Valentine was often a huge exhibition of used condoms. Thank God for condoms though, for the results of such misadventures could have been catastrophic. The day for some had to be necessarily marked with booze and jams.
Sending of carefully crafted text messages also characterises the day. In the attempt to send to all, males may end up sending love messages to males but that cannot be out of place because males need to be loved too and in Ghana today where homosexuality is struggling to make a strong statement , love messages to males will certainly not be strange.
Some of these messages have however brought tragedy rather than love and joy to some couples in the past. An incident which readily comes to mind is that of a soldier who was on duty at the Castle, Osu on February 14, 2005. He had seized his girlfriend’s cell phone the previous night to monitor calls and text messages out of suspicion and was outraged by what he saw. The result was that he shot his girlfriend, shot and killed his girlfriend’s friend and killed himself.
The Ghana Tourism Authority took advantage of the negativities that characterised the celebration of Valentine by launching a positive campaign to get the day more associated with chocolates, encouraging Ghanaians to buy and share chocolate since it was healthy, especially good for the heart.
Another institution, the Ministry of Education in collaboration with the Ghana Mathematics Society, in 2007, attempted to make it a day to create awareness for the importance of Mathematics and how to make its teaching and learning simple. This day was dubbed Maths day but it seems not to have caught on as widely as intended.
Over the past three years, the Valentine fever went down but seems to be rising high again this year with the preparations and atmosphere evident in the city.
Some churches would be organising programmes for the youth and preaching love.
Love is sharing, love is kind , love is patient, love is tolerant and forgiving , so go on, spread the love . Take advantage of the day to make your world better. Have a happy Valentine’s day.