Every year, everyone gets excited for an annual festival to celebrate love and admiration - Valentine’s Day. It's important to note how most people participate in this celebration without knowing how it came to be. The history of the festival of love begins way back in 270 BC in ancient Rome. A festival called Lupercalia was celebrated every year between February 14th to February 15th. But it was not a day quite as exciting and full of love as it is now. During these times, couples were forcefully paired up to check if they were compatible for at least a year. A few centuries later, a Christian bishop named Valentine was caught marrying couples without the Emperor’s permission. Because of this, he was sentenced to death on February 14th. It is said that on the day of his execution, Valentine wrote a love letter to the prisoner’s daughter and signed it “Your Valentine”.
In GZAAT, the students try to set the mood for Valentine’s Day by dressing in pink, selling Valentine's Day-themed sweets, and sending each other love letters. Last year Elene Ninua and Anastasia Khachidze came up with a creative way to celebrate Valentine’s Day. They set up an activity where people could write notes for their loved ones and anonymously send them alongside sweets and flowers. Since this was a success, our school culture committee decided to continue the tradition this year, but with a few changes. Instead of students giving others store-bought sweets, juniors made a charity stand where they sold homemade ones. Last year everyone wrote the letters independently and put them in a box. However, a few of them were unfortunately lost, therefore this time the school committee members decided to collect the letters directly and make sure that each student received their gift. Sadly, nothing comes without setbacks. This year, due to disorganization, the committee members lost the flowers instead.
Keto Kapianidze, a junior student of AAT, stated her opinion on the event:
For Valentine’s Day, I was expecting almost everyone to wear pink or red clothes and I was happy to see that most people owned up to my expectations. I was expecting a lot of flowers around the school, but sadly some of them were lost. Because of this, it was quite disorganized. There were no refunds for them either since the money went to charity. Also, the juniors organized a workshop where they sold Valentine’s Day-themed sweets. I liked the poster they made, the one where everyone took pictures. It was very fun since everyone participated.
A member of the School Committee, Nina Chiladze, commented in detail about the organization of this initiative:
This year, on Valentine’s day, we wanted to organize something special for the school. Last year, people really liked the idea of letters, so we decided to go with the same theme. On February 13th, the day before Valentine’s, the committee offered people various design options to pick out a card from. The students could tell us what message they wanted to give to their loved ones, and the committee would ensure that the note was delivered to the person anonymously if the person wished so. Many students also picked the option to give their desired person a rose, and the notes, along with the flowers, were delivered to the students during the lessons and lunches. Everybody was very excited about this event, and many students’ day was made by the lovely notes.
The reactions to receiving the notes and flowers were endearing, especially the unexpected ones. There were many funny instances too, with some students sending their friends amusing messages. Although some roses got lost, the spirit of the school outweighed the minor inconvenience. The day was full of happy faces, the color pink, and most importantly love. It brought a lot of joy to people, so there will surely be more events like this in the future!
Edited by: Natalie Gordadze