Some international students celebrate Valentine's Day, while others find it taboo. PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY AUDREY FAIN/DEF STAFF
International Boston University students said in some countries, Valentine’s Day is not only about doily hearts, candy and sexual favors.
“People don’t know about the real Valentine’s Day, they believe this little façade that’s being shoved down people’s throats,” said Boston University School of Communication sophomore Stephanie Nahous.
Stephanie, originally from Trinidad and Tobago, is one of many college students who said Valentine’s Day is almost a different holiday in countries other than America.
In America, “everybody capitalizes on Valentine’s Day. It’s in your face, it’s everywhere,” she said. “[In Trinidad and Tobago] it’s not marketed like it is here in the U.S.”
In Trinidad and Tobago, she said, although people do celebrate Valentine’s Day, they do not celebrate it to the extent that Americans do.
But over the years different countries’ celebrations have evolved, sometimes to resemble the stereotypical “American” festivities.
“[Currently], Spain is very similar to the U.S. Originally we didn’t have Valentine’s Day as a lovers’ day, but then we have this big department store, El Corte Inglés – it’s like Saks [Fifth Avenue]– that kind of brought it to another level – but that’s very recent,” said BU freshman Cristina Alvarez, a School of Engineering student from Spain.
Since Spain is a Catholic country, she said, “All celebrations have some religious fundament – they’re all related to a saint and they just make a national holiday out of it.”
Valentine’s Day used to be one of these holidays, dedicated to the feast of Saint Valentine, one of the martyred saints of ancient Rome, she said. The celebration of Feb. 14 was initially to honor the day of St. Valentine’s death. Now, however, “it’s more of a department store idea than a cultural idea,” Alvarez said.
Diala Demashkieh, a COM junior who grew up in Saudi Arabia, said she just recently learned about the holiday’s religious connotations.
“It started out to be religious and now its just business,” she said.
Demashkieh said in Saudi Arabia she attended a British school where her version of Valentine’s Day was called “Flower Day.” The country is a Muslim state, with the Quran standing in as the country’s constitution, and because her family lived in one of the closest cities to Mecca, she said, “according to culture, we could never publically celebrate Valentine’s Day.”
She said families not originally from the country often missed the holiday, however, and celebrated in private.
“In Saudi Arabia, a lot of people who live there are foreign, so they celebrated it back home, and they wanted to celebrate it in Saudi Arabia too, but it was within the privacy of your own home, your school and among your friends – and that was it,” she said.
She said in America, “Everyone has to capitalize on it or otherwise you’re being left out of something – and that’s sad and totally perverted.”
Nedah, a College of Arts and Science sophomore who asked to keep her last name anonymous, has experienced Valentine’s Day in Iran, Mexico and Russia, and she said each celebration is very different.
Nedah said in Iran, before the Islamic Revolution of 1979, the Shah introduced holidays such as Valentine’s Day in an effort to westernize the country.
But after the revolution, there was, “absolutely no PDA allowed, no matter what,” she said. “I mean you could probably walk around with flowers on Valentine’s Day and it wouldn’t be that big of a deal, but absolutely no big displays of affection.”
When she lived in Russia, she said, even though the state did not mandate anything related to the holiday, not everyone celebrated.
“In Russia,” Nedah said, “Valentine’s Day is more of a Western thing, so people who want to be more of the up-and-coming, elite class – they celebrate that.”
In Mexico, Nedah said, the holiday was less exclusive.
“It’s not about your little love connection – like your boyfriend or girlfriend – it’s literally about all love in general,” she said. “My father would bring every woman in the house flowers. The girls would bake things for one another. In Mexico, it is entirely different.”
Nedah said the Mexican version of Valentine’s Day appeals to her more than the American one.
“If we could have a day to celebrate love, that would be great, because love is a great thing and it makes the world go around, but not this,” she said. “Not like sex and chocolate and cards – that’s not love to me, that’s just money and competition.”
