Today, February 14th or yesterday, (because I don’t know when you are reading this), is known as the famous “Valentine’s Day”, the lover’s day o maybe the friendship’s day.
It’s the day when people show their affection for another person or people by sending cards, gifts, flowers or chocolates with messages of love.
But..
Do you know how did it started?
I didn’t, so I did some research and it comes to be the day gets its name from a famous saint:
“Saint Valentine”
There are several stories of who he was.
Here I will share one with you
“The popular belief about St Valentine is that he was a priest from Rome in the third century AD.
The Emperor at the time; Emperor Claudius II had banned marriage because he thought married men were bad soldiers.
Valentine felt this was unfair, so he broke the rules and arranged marriages in secret.
BBC
When Claudius found out, Valentine was thrown in jail and sentenced to death.
There, he fell in love with the jailer’s daughter and when he was taken to be killed on 14 February he sent her a love letter signed “from your Valentine”.
“While some believe that Valentine’s Day is celebrated in the middle of February to commemorate the anniversary of Valentine’s death or burial–which probably occurred around A.D. 270–others claim that the Christian church may have decided to place St. Valentine’s feast day in the middle of February in an effort to “Christianize” the pagan celebration of Lupercalia. Celebrated at the ides of February, or February 15, Lupercalia was a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, as well as to the Roman founders Romulus and Remus.
It’s thought that as part of the celebrations, boys drew names of girls from a box. They’d be boyfriend and girlfriend during the festival and sometimes they’d get married
Gradually, St Valentine’s name started to be used by people to express their feelings to those they loved.
History.com
Pretty cool information, right?
But I know, there is lots of times when this can be use as a commercial day for the bussines, and… I get it, it can be socially hard if you are single in these days but that is the beauty of the modern world, you don’t have to have a couple to celebrate Valentine’s Day.
Myself, I am not a person who ever consider this day as a day to celebrate.
But you know what?
I think if you can use the excuse of this day to help someone else to feel better, it is absolutely worth it.
And you can share the love in so many different way. It docent have to be only to a boyfriend or girlfriend, or love-partner or a date.
Investing in self- love and self-growing is so important:
- A massage
- A good book
- A good dinner
- A good wine
- Time with friends
- That training or course you always wanted to do
And these are only options but let’s not forget there are others who might not have the same luck as us.
So, why not investing your time in volunteers activities? This is such a great way to share the love.
Since 2018 part of my giving back to community in Cayman Islands is sharing the love of teaching yoga to everyone and to anyone.
I have been organising and sharing the yoga love with classes by donation, all going to a non-profit organisation called:
Cayman’s Act of Random Kindness,
This organisation endeavours to be a friend to people in unique circumstances of crisis; to demonstrate kindness through loving act’s of service. ARK is a friend to strangers and approaches humanity with great love and compassion -without judgment. ‘Paying it forward’ results in the nurturing and inspiration of the human spirit, changing lives one life at a time. As a chain reaction the ripple of kindness is unending
I chose the full moon for these classes, as a way of bringing the community closer to each other so I can share my knowledge about Chandra Namaskar most commonly known as Moon Salutation.And hopefully be able to provide some new information to the ones who approach these practice with good intentions.
Also have been inviting another wonderful instructor Maree, to join me in the teaching. She is the one in charge of the introspective and meditative part of the class.
February 2019 won’t be the exception and its full moon is commonly known as the Full Snow Moon in Native American cultures.
These ancient tribes named this moon after the way trees cracked in the cold, or how people had to sit shoulder to shoulder around the fire for warmth. Even the Celts called it the Moon of Ice.
But for the one who lives in Cayman Islands this is not something we have to worry about. We have the privilege to enjoy the sun and beach most of the time, right?
That is why Maree & I will be teaching an outdoor Yoga Class by donations!
First we will do a warm up, I will explain how to practice Chandra Namaskar and we will flow with it. On the second part Maree will be a guiding you in a delightful Meditation.
Come ready to let go what is not longer serving you
February 19th, 2019 from 6 to 7pm.
The location is at public beach’s grass patch next to the playground, next to calicos.
As I mention before all the donation will go to Caymans ARK – Acts of Random Kindness
Please bring your own yoga mat and water bottle.
Maybe some mosquito spray and a blanket for the meditation part 😉
Even in the Caribbean can gets chilli
Be part, share the love and help us spread the word with your friends or anyone you think will like to do the practice.
Thank you
Namaste..