Catholic valentine celebration excites Christians

__________________

Last Wednesday (February 14) was Valentine’s Day and certainly, many Ugandans showed up at various leisure places to enjoy the love event.

The day was nonetheless very tricky for the Roman Catholics because it coincided with Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the Christian Lenten season of prayer, fasting and almsgiving. In any case, they never let the day pass without celebrating it. So, they came up with an alternative, which was to mark the event on another day.

The Catholic Valentine’s Day was celebrated at Bishop Hanlon Gardens, Nsambya (in the vicinity of St. Peter’s Proto-Cathedral) on Saturday. The exciting function was organised by Holy Cross Family Ministries, an affiliate organization of the Congregation of Holy Cross. One fascinating aspect of the function was the diversity of the couples that graced it. There were newly-wed spouses, and also couples that have been in marriage for as long as 10 years, 25 years, and even 50 years!

The function started with a thanksgiving mass presided over by the Director of the Marriage Department of Kampala Archdiocese, Fr. Herman Zziwa assisted by Fr. Joseph Kanaamala (from Kisubi Seminary) and Fr. John Baptist Nsubuga (the reigning director of Holy Cross Family Ministries in East Africa).

Fr, Zziwa revealed that Valentine’s Day is a Catholic Feast Day, which was hijacked by the secular world. He said that St. Valentine was a Roman Catholic priest who encouraged young people to marry and also wedded couples clandestinely in defiance of the pagan Roman Emperor Claudius, who had passed a law prohibiting young men from getting married, to be able to perform well at the frontline. Valentine was imprisoned and subsequently beheaded on February 14, 270.

Zziwa urged the Catholic couples to celebrate the day properly by doing for their spouses those thigs that help to rekindle/rejuvenate their love/ marital bliss.

Fr. John Baptist Nsubuga thanked the Catholic couples for choosing to celebrate Valentine’s Day in an appropriate way.

The functions had many interesting highlights, one of which was the couples’ renewal of marital vows and the exchange of gifts. There was also an exciting competition for the best-dressed couple, which was won by Assumpta and Wilfred Dramadri.