UCAN: Thai youth to celebrate love on 'crazy' Valentine's Day

BANGKOK, Thailand (UCAN) - Sitting side by side, hand in hand, Masaaki and Kittima said they would hold hands all day long on Valentine's Day.

The secondary-level students of St. John's International School in Bangkok told UCA News on Feb. 6 that they were excited looking ahead to Feb. 14. Masaaki Itoh, a 20-year-old Japanese-Thai, confided that he would buy his girlfriend flowers and dinner, as well as a necklace worth 2,000 baht (about $55 USD). "I want my girlfriend to be happy," he said. Kittima Rawiwatthanawong, 17, a Thai Buddhist, said Valentine's Day is "part of youth culture," and she is "impressed" by the story of the Catholic saint for whom the day is named. In the third century, according to some accounts, Roman Emperor Claudius forbade young men from marrying, fearing lack of recruits for his army. A priest named Valentine saw the decree as unjust and blessed marriages secretly in his church. He was imprisoned for this and eventually martyred, on Feb. 14. Other accounts say the saint donated dowries to impoverished girls and married lovers meeting on Feb. 14 the feast day of the Roman goddess Juno, who was associated with marriage. Pope Gelasius established the day as the feast of St. Valentine in 496. Kittima and Masaaki are two of many young people who will be celebrating Valentine's Day this year in Thailand. A 2005 survey of young Thais by Bangkok's Assumption Business Administration College (ABAC), now Assumption University, found that nearly 40 percent of them celebrate Valentine's Day. The very Western holiday has taken root in this Eastern culture in many ways. Thai newspapers have reported that in recent years, an average of nearly 1,500 couples get married in Bangkok's downtown Bang Rak (literally "love village") district on Valentine's Day. A few couples marry underwater off Kradan Island, Trang province, a popular place for scuba diving 830 kilometers (about 515 miles) south of Bangkok. Some even jump out of aircraft and get married in mid-air. According to Thai Farmers Bank Research Center, Thai people will spend more than 600 million baht celebrating Valentine's Day this year. Shopping malls in Bangkok are decorated with heart-shaped balloons and glittering paper, with crystals, stuffed toys, pillows and other gifts on display. Thai Internet Web sites also highlight gift ideas and songs for the occasion. Sales of flowers, rings, necklaces and men's cologne are brisk. It is a "day of love," university student Nutthaporn Shiseadgham told UCA News, even though "love can be expressed every day." Many teenagers, he admitted, "act crazy" on this day. According to the results of the 2005 ABAC, apart from giving gifts and going out for dinner, as many as 30 percent of Bangkok teenagers intended to have sex to celebrate the occasion. This trend worries Dean Lanaras, acting headmaster at St. John's International School. He told UCA News on Feb. 6 that the school was "arranging a Valentine's Day celebration so there would be a celebration for the students, but with some control." "We are worried that our students will get into risky behavior on that day," he said. A Thai father who did not wish to be named told UCA News in a telephone interview that he advises his 18-year-old daughter about what is right and wrong and lets her decide for herself, but stresses that she should act responsibly. In his view, media reporting on girls losing their virginity on Valentine's Day might have the effect of encouraging such a trend. Angsana Cheeranont, mother of an 18-year-old girl, told UCA News on Feb. 8 that she always reminds her daughter about the value of "honor." The Ruamrudee International School staff member said she explains that if a man does not respect her then his declaration of love is insincere. She sees young girls these days as "expressing love the wrong way" by giving away their virginity. Nonetheless, she said Valentine's Day could be "romantic" if youths control themselves, "do not forget their honor" and "show pure love to their beloved." Youth behavior on Valentine's Day also worries Father Joseph Anucha Chaiyadej, assistant director of the Thai bishops' Catholic Social Communications Commission of Thailand. "We have advised Catholic youth to be careful during this day through our radio programs and news bulletins, which reach Buddhist and Muslim audiences too." The Catholic Church in Bangkok has not organized any special celebration. "Valentine's Day (itself) is not important to us," Father Anucha said, noting that Thai people celebrate Valentine's Day as a "festival of love" for the sake of celebration, without any real understanding. "Our work is based on love, so we don't need a special day for love," the priest remarked. However, parishes may hold special Masses for married couples to strengthen their marriage and renew vows, he added, and priests may focus on the message of love in their homilies. That message would have special relevance at St. Michael the Archangel Church in Ban Nong Song Yae, northeastern Thailand. Several couples plan to get married in a special Valentine's Day ceremony there, at the largest wooden Catholic church in the country, according to a Thai Internet news service. Strengthening marriage is a concern not only of the local church, amid a divorce rate in Thailand that the United Nations Development Program says is "steadily increasing," but also of the government. The Bangkok Post, an English-language daily newspaper, reported an official of the ministry concerned with family affairs as saying it would distribute 20,000 sets of handbooks and video CDs on family life to couples who marry on Feb. 14.

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Republished by Catholic Online with permission of the Union of Catholic Asian News (UCA News), the world's largest Asian church news agency (www.ucanews.com).