VALENTINE'S DAY
The week starting February 10th has been a very busy week with many very special events here in America. One of the most famous events was Valentine’s day on February 14th. Do you know how Valentine’s day started?
There are several stories about how Valentine’s day was created. Following are the two most common stories.
Around 270 A.D., the emperor of Rome was named Claudius the second. He decided that all young men should remain single so they would make better soldiers. However, a Christian priest named Valentine continued to perform weddings in secret. The emperor discovered Valentine and had him put into jail to be executed by having his head cut off.
The night before his execution, he sent a letter to the daughter of the jail keeper. The letter was signed, "From you Valentine."
According to another legend, the daughter was blind. The jail keeper asked Valentine to teach his daughter, since Valentine was an educated man. Valentine, with the help of god, performed a miracle, and the night before his execution, the girl was able to see. She planted a tree to remember Valentine after his death, and the tree still grows.
Now in America, on Valentine’s day, men give chocolates, roses and Valentine cards to their wives or girlfriends. Children also exchange cards. How do you celebrate Valentine’s day?
There were several other important events this week.
On February 12th, the Chinese celebrated Chinese New Year, the start of the year of the horse. There are millions of Chinese in America, especially in San Francisco and New York. They celebrated the New Year with parades.
There is a major religious event called Ash Wednesday that was on February 13. This is the beginning of a 40 day Christian period called Lent. During this period, Christians are supposed to "fast" (reduce eating and drinking) and also reduce pleasures.
Just before Ash Wednesday, there is a huge celebration called Mardi Gras or Carnival on February 12th. All Japanese are familiar with the huge festival in Brazil. However, this is also a big event in America, especially in the southern city called New Orleans. Mardi Gras is also called Fat Tuesday.
The Winter Olympics have also been held this week in Salt Lake City, Utah, starting on February 8th. This has been an exciting Olympics, including one young speed skater named Apolo Anton Ohno whose father is from Japan.
California is also excited by the California Lottery which is worth $193 million ($193,000,000 - which is about 2,500,000,000 yen). Each lottery ticket only costs $1 (133 yen) and whoever wins will be very, very rich. The chance of winning, however, is very small. You have a much better chance of being killed by lightning than winning the lottery.
There are two major holidays to remember the birthdays of former American presidents: February 11th is called Lincoln’s Birthday for Abraham Lincoln, one of America’s finest presidents, and February 18 is called President’s day to remember George Washington, America’s first president.
Finally, there was an important new company listed on the stock exchange. It is called PayPal, and my on-line English students are familiar with it since they use it to send money to me in the US. PayPal allows people to send money over the Internet. The company had an Initial Public Offering (IPO) which is the first time it sells stock on the stock exchange.
The American stocks have been down, especially Internet stocks. However, PayPal’s stock rose 55 percent on the first day. Perhaps this means that American investors are willing to invest again in the new Internet companies, after having lost so much money in the last 1.5 years.
It has been a very busy week!
