Our President Mamnoon Hussain urged Pakistanis to not 'observe' the Valentine's Day. I cannot understand how a man with a business background and a permanent resident of Karachi could say such a thing. He should know the reason why Valentine's Day has become such a grand affair is not only because it is fun but because it is good for business. Millions of rupees have been spent to celebrate the Day this year. A lot of profit has been made by party organisers, the flower vendors and rose growers, the chocolate makers, importers of heart-hugging teddy bears, the balloon man has earned as well as he does on Eid though the balloons are mostly heart shaped meant for young lovers rather than the round shapes meant for kiddies. And that is not the end of the list of trade and business that has taken off in Karachi in the name of Valentine's Day. In short, the President ought to be told Valentine's Day has the approval of the consumers as well as the sellers of goods symbolizing the Day. That includes the import of gift items as well as the little balloon seller and the shabby young fellows offering single roses at traffic signals to couples in cars. Sorry to inform you Mr President, Valentine's Day has become part of Karachi's (and Lahore's) cultural calendar.
It has taken nearly a decade for Valentine's Day to become a profit-generating celebrations. You may recall the time when some newspapers invited people to place love messages to their wife or girlfriend husband or lover as an advertisement. Hundreds did. Some TV channels also tried to encash the Day. Gradually, parties began to be held, the bakeries made heart-shape cakes, even the sweetmeat sellers sold traditional 'methaee' in heart-shape boxes. And of course, love-messages deluged the internet. Since the Day is celebrated in the West, which produces a multitude of gift items and prints hearts on everything of everyday use from towels, aprons, shirts, skirts, toys, hairbands, bracelets, coffee mugs rapping paper, balloons, red ribbons... this is easily imported so that Valentine's Day is easily created here in the city. The activities such as balls, food festivals, restaurant discounts for couples, and so forth, began to be organised. Nurseries timed rose harvest to the month of February.
Valentine's Day is now at par with New Year's Day which is also global culture. We are part of the global village.
While we were discussing the merits and demerits of Valentine's Day one companion informed us that there are plans to popularise Haloween. The word means Holy Evening. It is a feature of American culture when little children wear fancy dress and visit the homes of neighbours asking for trick-or-treat. The USA is consumer society and everything gets commercialized. There are special items which represent Haloween, such as the pumpkin, therefore symbols of Haloween are manufactured, including the special candy to give to the trick-or-treating children, the readymade costumes of popular comicbook and TV characters such as Spiderman costume, and household items such as napkins, aprons, illuminations and messages wishing you a happy Haloween etc. All of it is big business.
I have not as yet seen signs of people in Pakistan celebrating Haloween, which our friend at the get-together mentioned. Haloween is not global culture, so do you think it will become popular like New Year's Day and Valentine's Day? I have my doubts, especially as we will need those large orange pumpkins. Our home grown pumpkins are quite ugly outside though the flesh is tasty. We had better stick to making soups and vege dishes with it and forget Haloween.