February 14 is a day set aside annually to celebrate love as the season connotes. Valentine’s Day is a time when people show affection and friendship. It is celebrated in many ways worldwide and falls on February 14 each year.
Many people around the world celebrate Valentine’s Day by showing appreciation for the people they love or adore.
Some people take their loved ones for a romantic dinner at a restaurant while others may choose this day to propose or get married. Many people give greeting cards, chocolates, jewellery or flowers, particularly roses, to their partners or admirers on Valentine’s Day.
Across the world, the day was celebrated by many who took out time to show love to their spouses, parents and loved ones.
In Paris, the French capital, most couples still took out time despite the work schedule to celebrate the season.
The situation wasn’t different from Afghanistan, the Philippines, Iraq, Pakistan, Britain, the United States and other countries where Valentine’s day was celebrated in love.
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Meanwhile, in India, more than 10,000 schoolchildren, some as young as six, made Valentine’s Day pledge not to marry without their parents’ consent.
The vast majority of Indian marriages are arranged by families and couples who defy tradition to marry outside caste and religion face a severe and sometimes deadly backlash.
Some 10,000 pupils aged six to 17 and even some teachers took a vow at 25 schools to “love and respect their parents till eternity” in the western state of Gujarat — the stronghold of Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“I will always respect their decision because no one in the world has sacrificed for me like them,” said student Samadrita Banerjee.
People in swiftly-changing but still largely conservative India also often frown upon unmarried couples who can find themselves being abused and harassed in public places.
Elsewhere, a school association in the southern state of Karnataka alerted teachers and parents to ensure children did not celebrate Valentine’s Day by bunking classes to go to shopping malls or the movies, The Times of India newspaper reported.
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