Development Of Delivery Of Valentine's Day Remarks, Write Poetry To Greeting Cards

JAKARTA - February is synonymous with the month of love. You don't have to wait until the 14th, when February has just started, shopping centers are already decorating the atmosphere with all-pink shades. Many dining and shopping establishments are offering Valentine's Day discounts. As special as it's Valentine's Day.

Valentine's Day is celebrated popularly around the world, including in Indonesia. Although the celebration of Valentine's Day in Indonesia is often opposed because it is considered a western culture and outside the corridors of religion, this does not diminish the joy of celebrating this beloved day. Changing gifts and sending chocolates is not only done to couples but also to friends and colleagues.

Valentine is felt to be lacking without expressions of affection. However, it seems that in the era of technology like now it can look a little dime because it is just sending messages via social media or messaging applications, it is even considered rag.

This is different from the romantic sayings to celebrate Valentine's Day in the Middle Ages in England, although there was no real Valentine's Day celebration until the 1400s. The oldest known romantic greeting to celebrate Valentine's Day is a poem written in 1415 by Charles who had the title Duke of Orleans.

Charles wrote a love letter to his wife while Charles was imprisoned at the Tower of London after he was captured at the Battle of Agincourt. Several years later, it is believed that King Henry V hired a writer named John Lydgate to write a letter celebrating Valentine's Day addressed to Catherine of Valois.

Several years later, the way to convey romantic words on Valentine's Day in England began to develop. Not only for lovers, Valentine's greetings were also developed to be given to friends from various social classes to exchange signs of affection or handwritten notes. Until finally in 1900, greeting cards began to shift the popularity of ordinary handwritten letters.

Printed cards with a message are an easy way for people to express their feelings, both near and far away. Cheap postage also contributed to the increasing popularity of sending Valentine's Day greeting cards at that time.

Reporting from History, America actually got to know the exchange of handmade Valentine greeting cards earlier. They did it in the early 1700s. Then in the 1840s, Esther A. Howland began selling America's first mass-produced valentine cards.

Howland, known as Mother Valentine, makes intricate creations with real lace, ribbons and colorful drawings known as memos. Valentine's Day is also touted as the second largest card delivery day outnumbering Christmas card shipments in the country.

However, not all countries have a tradition of celebrating Valentine's Day. Saudi Arabia, in 2020 for the first time allowed the celebration of Valentine's Day legally. While shopkeepers in Saudi Arabia were normally required to hide red roses and chocolates before Valentine's Day, the ban has now been lifted. Now, restaurant owners in Saudi Arabia are also allowed to give their Valentine nuances without worrying about being reprimanded by the sharia police.

Quoted from Middle East Monitor, the main turning point in the decision came in 2018, when former President of the Makkah Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Crime (CPVPV) Sheikh Ahmed Qasim Al-Ghamdi stated that celebrating Valentine's Day does not actually conflict with Islamic teachings. According to him, the celebration of love is a universal phenomenon and is not limited to the non-Muslim world.