Valentine's Day

Hi there!

Today, the whole world is celebrating the hearts day and here at PCC, I'd like to share to you a little of what I've read about the celebration... not to mention that we can say "MAHAL KITA" in so many languages.

So who is St. Valentine?

Every February we celebrate Valentine's Day by giving flowers, candy and cards to those we love. We do this in honor of St. Valentine.

Legend has it that Valentine was a priest who served during the 3rd century Rome. There was an Emperor at that time by the name Claudius II. Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those who were married. With this thought in mind he outlawed marriage for young men in the hope of building a stronger military base. Supposedly, Valentine, decided this decree just wasn't fair and chose to marry young couples secretly. When Emperor Claudius II found out about Valentine's actions he had put him to death.

Another legend has it that Valentine was an imprisoned man who fell in love with his jailor's daughter. Before he was put to death he sent the first "valentine" himself when he wrote he a letter and singed it "Your Valentine," words still used on cards today.

Perhaps we'll never knwo the true identity and story behind the man named St. Valentine, but this much is for sure... February has been the month to celebrate love for a long time, dating clear back to the Middle Ages. In fact, Valentine's ranks second only Christmas in number of greeting cards sent.

Another Valentine gentleman you may be wondering about is Cupid (Latin: cupido, "desire"). In Roman mythology Cupid is the son of Venus, goddess of love. his counterpart in Greek mythology is Eros, god of love. Cupid is often said to be a mischievous boy who goes around wounding both gods and humans with his arrows, causing them to fall in love.

Ancient Romans honored the goddess Juno on February 14th. Juno was the Queen of the Roman Gods and Goddesses. The Romans also knew her as the Goddess of women and marriage.

"Mahal Kita" in Different Languages:

Amharic: Afekrishalehou
Basc: Nere Maitea
Bavarian: I mog di narrisch gern
Berber: Lakh tirikh
Esperanto: Mi amas vin
Flemish: Ik zie oe geerne
Gaelic: Ta gra agam ort
Hokkien: Wa ai lu
Gujarati: Tane Prem Karoo Choo
Hopi: Nu 'umi unangwa'ta
Kurdish: Ex te hezdikhem
Lingala: Nalingi yo
Navajo: Ayor anoshi
Romanian: Te iu besc
Scot Gaelic:Tha gra/dh agam ort
Serbian: Volim te Ja te volim
Slovak: lubim ta
Spanish: Te amo
Swedish: Jag a'Oskar dig
Fiipino: Mahal Kita
Tunisian: ha ek bak
Urdu: Mujhe tumse muhabbat hai
Bengali: Ami tomAy bhAlobAshi
Friesian: Ik bin fereale op dy
Hausa: Ina sonki
Ik ha Id fan dy
Kiswahili: Nakupenda
Latvian: Es Tev milu
Luo: Aheri
Mandarin: Wo ai ni
Mohawk: Konoronhkwa
Ndebeke: Niyakutanda
Russian: Ya Iyublyu tebya
Ya vas Iyublyu
Shona: Ndinokuda
Sioux: Techihhila
Sloven: Ijubim te
Swahili: Nakupenda
Swiss-German: Ch'ha di ga'rn
Tamil: Naan Unnai Kadhalikiren
Turkish: Seni seviyorum
Vlaams: Ik hou van jou
Malay/Indonesian: Saya cintakan awak Aku sayang engkau
Catalan: T'estim (mallorcan)
T'estime (valencian)
T'estimo (catalonian)
T'estim molt (I love you a lot)

There we have it...

Calling all readers of PCC. If you know a phrase which means Mahal kita, please send me thru email or comment.

But in the end, we chess addicts, only have some few words or phrases that means Mahal Kita. This is one of the most common:

- Checkmate

And all the things that means we have the time and chance to play the Royal Game of Chess!