Loathing the Valentine day: not only in Islam

http://simplyjews.blogspot.com/

The media was abuzz with the story about Pakistan’s president lecturing against celebration of this holiday. Of course, the media wouldn’t care (or dare?) to dig just a bit deeper to learn that the prohibition of that specific holiday is part of Sharia fatwas. But whatever.

So, to balance the story about Islamic rejection of the Valentine day, here comes a rejection from a rather unexpected quarter: the RoC (Russian Orthodox Church). Translation, as usual, Google and I.

Orthodox activists in Krasnodar opposed the celebration of Valentine’s Day. They have unfurled a banner with the inscription “You kiss her, and Judas kisses us all” on the so called Bridge of Kisses in the city. The banner appeared there on the night of February 14, but the morning after it already was in the river Kuban, as reports portal “Yugopolis”.

In an official statement, representatives of the so-called orthodox “Gimena”* movement called Valentine’s Day a “tragedy of modern Russia”. “Love – a false value, alien to Russian culture,” – they say – “Russian marriage is based on mutual respect of spouses, honoring traditions and faith in God.”

“Love was invented by the West, which is the center of demonic and fatal passions. Tristan and Isolde, Romeo and Juliet – behind all those masks hides Judas, who betrayed Christ,” – activists say. In their view, “assembly-line production of valentines and lustful exchange of saliva” “glorify the Antichrist”.

And I don’t even want to guess what the orthodox folks in Jerusalem say about the Valentine day at this stage, but my guess will be not something complimentary too.

So there.

(*) I’ve decided to leave “Gimena” as a slavish transcription of the movement’s name, but there is no circumventing the fact that the only use of the word “Гимена” (“Gimena”) is as an outdated synonym for “hymen”. It is a somewhat strange name for a group of orthodox people, but there is no site on the ‘net, so the only working assumption be that this is what they stand for… http://simplyjews.blogspot.com/