All over the world, particularly in the European countries, February is regarded as the Love Month, because Valentine’s Day falls on 14^th February.  Legends and stories about the origin of this day being celebrated as Valentine’s Day differ according to various versions and countries.  But the modern world has uniformly accepted (more so the Internet world) that February 14 is a day of LOVE between a male and a female.  Age has no bar for love and affection. Love has no season or even reason.  It is a feeling flowing from the heart of every individual with no exception and there is no one in the world, who can hate Love and Lovers. However sparing an exclusive day for Love and marking it to be February 14 has been universally accepted.

So Valentine’s Day has come to stay for centuries and with commercialization of everything in the present days, Valentine’s Day is one when people express their love to each other by sending Greeting Cards (the Greeting Card Manufacturers Association of US estimates that millions of people use Greeting Cards for Valentine’s Day, next only to Christmas). Sending them in heart shaped designs and packed in a beautiful cover with Cupid and Arrow emblem has been found to be most popular. Meeting, dating, courting and dining outside has become the main affair for the day for youngsters.

Otherwise there are no authentic information of a Valentine’s Week, where several days are marked as important such as – Slap Day; Chocolate Day; Friendship Day; Rose Day; Kiss Day; I Value our friendship Day; Heart to Heart Day; Hug Day; Thanks for a Great Valentine’s Day; Internal Friendships Week etc. – and we can however relate them in our own way with Valentine’s Day.

Again for a specific question “What are the days and when are they celebrated in the week of Valentines?” – Yahoo search engine has floated the question on the net and got the following only answer (just answer and no source or authenticity):

7^th February                              – Rose Day

8^th February                              – Propose Day

9^th February                              – Chocolate Day

10^th February                             – Teddy Day

11^th February                             – Promise Day

12^th February                             – Kiss Day

13^th February                             – Hug Day

14^th February – Valentine’s Day

Now let us see reason behind the so called special days of a Valentine’s Week, just for fun:

Slap Day : This fails to fit anywhere in a week where only actions of love are expected and admissible. May be one of the pairs slapping fondly the other?

But still for a whole day? If done, the other will have puffy cheek unable to celebrate Valentine’s Day! lolz… hahahha…

Chocolate Day: Ha ..This is for real. Sweets and Chocolates are distributed freely between lovers as expression of their Sweet Love.

In fact the sales of confectioneries during the Valentine’s season in the European Countries cross millions of dollars.  So everybody is very happy – the sender, the receiver and to a great extent the manufacturers/sellers of sweet items.

Friendship Day : This also sounds reasonable.  After all love is born out of friendship and you won’t love your enemy. In Japan Valentine’s season is also celebrated by expressing love among friends – girls bringing sweets to all their co-workers and officemates.

But the real Friendship Day is something else – on the first Sunday of August, Friends Day is celebrated in large number of countries, started in US in the year 1935. Exchange of Friendship Day Cards, gifts, flowers and wrist bands is a popular tradition on this occasion.

Rose Day: You can’t separate Roses from Valentine’s Day.  For a lover to propose, Red Ross is the popularly recognized symbol.

Millions of Roses are exported from India to other countries, owing to the extraordinary and unique fragrance they emit (and thereby give employment opportunities to a whole Industry).  This is how the popular idiom “To say it with Roses…” is born perhaps.

Kiss Day : A very obvious and purposeful day to celebrate in the so called Valentine’s Week.  Without kisses, Love between two people loses its total charm.

From the days of Adam and Eve, this is the only old and never changed custom human race is following, to express love, irrespective of any worldly barriers of language, culture, country and seas in between.

I Value our Friendship Day: This goes exactly with Friendship Day and needs no explanation.

Heart to Heart Day: This is surely needed in love between two persons.  Without it Love has no value and gets a different name – “Lust”.

Hug Day: Goes with Love immensely.

By hugging, bodily transmission of love – not only between opposite sexes, but also with another human being is expressed as followed in many countries, particularly in Muslim countries.

Thanks for a Great Valentine’s Day: A civilized expression for all that received on the occasion of Valentine Season.

Temporary Insanity Day : It is not known how this fantastic day celebrations on February 19 originated.  But it is recognized as such and there are lots and lots of eCards for sending on that day.  Really this is related with humor among friends and family and friends. You can go crazy on that day to make others feel that you are temporarily insane – just ask the person you come across what gender they are – or you drive them nuts by forwarding every email in your inbox to all of them in your contact list…twice. They will never forget this Temporary Insanity Day in their life.

Banana Bread Day:  February 23 is officially recognized in the US States as National  Banana Bread Day – among the fun days.  Banana has many nutrients really and there are recipes in assorted varieties for making Banana Breads.

Maha Shivratri:  This is a popular Indian festival to worship and grace the Hindu God – Lord Shiva.  Though Shivaratris occur every month, Hindus observe the one that comes in the month of February (actually according to Indian calendar this comes on a date in February).

This year’s Maha Shivratri falls on 23^rd February 09.  For thousands of years, yogis observe this day of self-awakening and seeing the inner-self. Common people observe this with fasting the whole day and keeping vigil over night without sleep – praising and singing about Lord Shiva.

Mardi Grass : This is a festival of Carnival celebrated with much fan fare in Europe, especially Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, New Orleans, and Louisiana. This is also known as Fat Tuesday in France and Shrove Tuesday in the United Kingdom- before Ash Wednesday.

The celebrations take place for atleast three days with colorful Carnivals and rejoicing. This year Mardi Grass falls on February 24.

Cuddles Day : Every year Cuddles Day is celebrated on 25^th February. Cuddles are the sweetest way of telling your friends, family members and your acquaintances that you care. US celebrates National Cuddle day by sending eCards and greetings to all, as a way of expression of affection.

Polar Bear Day: Although the origin is not known, this is celebrated on 27^th of February every year, to commemorate Polar Bears, the world’s largest carnivore.

Polar Bears of Arctic Region are liked by kids everywhere and teachers take this opportunity to explain everything about Polar Bears. TV  Nature channels don’t forget to telecast many programs on these popular animals living on Mountains of ice.