Today is Valentine's Day.
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How Valentine's Day came to be

We all know Valentine's Day is the time when couples exchange flowers, cards and candy. But many do not realize the holiday has a rich history shrouded in Christian and ancient Roman tradition. According to one popular legend, Valentine was believed to be a priest who served during the third century in Rome.

When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he outlawed marriage for young men.

Valentine saw the decree as unjust, so he defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret.

When Valentine's actions were discovered, Claudius ordered he be put to death. Today, the Catholic Church recognizes at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom were martyred.

ROMAN PRISONS

Other stories suggest Valentine may have been killed for attempting to help Christians escape harsh Roman prisons where they were often beaten and tortured.
According to one legend, Valentine actually sent the first 'valentine' greeting himself. While in prison, it is believed that Valentine fell in love with a young girl - perhaps his jailor's daughter - who visited him during his confinement. Before his death, he allegedly wrote her a letter, signed 'From your Valentine.'
By the Middle Ages, Valentine was one of the most popular saints in England and France. Although the truth behind Valentine legends is debatable, all emphasize his appeal as a sympathetic, heroic, and romantic figure.

In Iran, police this week ordered shops to remove heart-themed decorations from their windows.

In India, Hindu nationalists burned Valentine's Day cards because they consider it a corrupt Western holiday.

Educate the youth on real essence of Valentine day

Churches and the FM stations have been called upon to educate the youth more on the essence of Valentine's Day and what Saint Valentine actually stood for and did.
Odeneho Kwaku Appiah, immediate past president of the Youth in Action, a Network of Youth Groups in Kumasi, observed that lack of education on the deeds of Saint Valentine, has resulted in the wrong perception that it is an occasion for immoral activities and pre-marital sex.
The call, which was contained in a statement issued and signed by Odeneho Appiah on Thursday, said unless the churches and the FM stations devoted ample time to genuinely enlighten the youth, the Valentine's day celebration would eventually pose a threat to the health and good morals of Ghanaians. He said, instead of the FM stations using their airtime to instil in the youth virtues and good morals as the Valentine's Day approaches, they rather resorted to promoting romantic messages, thereby conditioning the minds of the youth for sexual activities.
Besides, "the promotional messages on Valentine's day also goes to entice even some married couples to leave their marital homes only to engage in adulterous activities with their concubines", he added. Odeneho Appiah therefore, suggested that rather than making their promotional activities romantic, the FM stations should tailor the Valentine's Day messages in such a manner as to instil in the youth a sense of charity and a strong desire to give out alms to the poor, widows and the needy.
The churches should also go beyond preaching the message from the pulpits to organising the youth on the Valentine's day to undertake activities that are charitable in nature including donations to orphanages and the sick.