admintable, scattering the cutlery, frill and menu cards.
Pain was written all over the young executive’s face in its rightful colours. His red eyes and furrowed brow depicted someone who was in a state of severe mental anguish. Couples in the eatery scurried for cover.
Ladies in the house screamed as waiters broke food trays while rushing to safety.
“I told you that these restaurants are not safe at all. Is this how we are supposed to spend this lovely St Valentine’s Day? I don’t deserve this,” an overdressed lady who was among the guests could be heard saying.
She spoke her voice hoarse, before leaving her astounded boyfriend quacking in his boots.
Couples that were yet to make orders simply walked out, translating to loss of business for the restaurant.
The faint-hearted screamed as security personnel moved in to subdue Nhamo. His gripe, we were later told, was that he had received a call informing him that the love of his life had been spotted booking into a lodge with someone else.
Such are the challenges that come with this package called love. The more you love someone the more they hurt your feelings. It can be worse if you are possessive because some women hug people for the sake of it with no strings attached. Kungombundira zvake.
Thursday was St Valentine’s Day when couples celebrated love while exchanging gifts.
Bosses had a torrid time being lied to on this day as people sought time off work to attend to matters of the heart. Lovers made the day memorable by spending quality time together including sleeping in hotels and treating themselves to copious amounts of booze and food. Those who cannot accept no for an answer were seen picking up the tables.
“Can you learn to be honest with yourself? I told you it’s all over but you are busy sending me these flowers. Unopenga here? Ida anokuda mhani iwe. Rudo rwedu rwakaexpaya semutero wembwa kudhara,” I heard a young lady being told straight in the face.
Saint Valentine’s Day, commonly known as Valentine’s Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is observed on February 14 each year. It is celebrated in many countries around the world, although it remains a working day in most of them. St Valentine’s Day began as a liturgical celebration of one or more early Christian saints named Valentinus.
The most popular martyrology associated with Saint Valentine was that he was imprisoned for performing weddings for soldiers who were forbidden to marry and for ministering to Christians, who were persecuted under the Roman Empire. During his imprisonment, he is said to have healed the daughter of his jailer Asterius. Legend states that before his execution he wrote “from your Valentine” as a farewell to her.
In some cases, St Valentine’s Day was first associated with romantic love in the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer in the High Middle Ages, when the tradition of courtly love flourished. By the 15th century, it had evolved into an occasion in which lovers expressed their love for each other by presenting flowers, offering confectionery, and sending greeting cards.
Valentine’s Day symbols that are used today include the heart-shaped outline, doves, and the figure of the winged Cupid. Since the 19th century, handwritten valentines have given way to mass-produced greeting cards.
There is no evidence of any link between Saint Valentine’s Day and the rites of the ancient Roman festival, despite claims by many authors. The celebration of Saint Valentine did not have any romantic connotations until Chaucer’s poetry about Valentines in the 14th century.
Popular modern sources claim links to unspecified Greco-Roman February holidays alleged to be devoted to fertility and love to St Valentine’s Day, but prior to Chaucer in the 14th century, there were no links between the saints named Valentinus and romantic love. Earlier links as described above were focused on sacrifice rather than romantic love.
In the ancient Athenian calendar the period between mid-January and mid-February was the month of Gamelion, dedicated to the sacred marriage of Zeus and Hera.
In Ancient Rome, Lupercalia, observed February 13–15, was an archaic rite connected to fertility.
Lupercalia was a festival local to the city of Rome.
The more general Festival of Juno Februa, meaning Juno the purifier or the chaste Juno , was celebrated on February 13–14.
Pope Gelasius I (492–496) abolished Lupercalia.
Alban Butler in his Lifes of the Principal Saints (1756–1759) claimed without proof that men and women in Lupercalia drew names from a jar to make couples, and that modern Valentine’s letters originated from this custom.
In reality, this practice originated in the Middle Ages, with no link to Lupercalia, with men drawing the names of girls at random to couple with them. On Thursday, gift shops and florists enjoyed brisk business delivering flowers to lovers.
Florists plying their trade in the Africa Unity Square in Harare worked overnight on Wednesday to ensure they had enough flowers to meet the demands of their customers.
“Tirikutorara pabasa kuti zvidaire. We have so many orders to satisfy and as such we have to do everything in our might to ensure we meet our side of the bargain,” said Mr Simbarashe Manimhanzi.
His colleague Robert Nhekede chipped in: “The more we work, the more money we get. We really have not choice here than to work round the clock.”
People could be seen going out of their way to please their spouses by buying new electrical goods and clothing items for them.
“Rudo ndimandivhaidza, rudo rwechokwadi,
Vanhu vanonditaurira, mukadzi wako akanyangara,
Vanhu vanonditaurira, mukadzi wako akasviba,
Ini handizvione, nekuti ndinomuda,” sang Zimbabwe’s Yellowman Biggie Zhanje in this yesteryear hit.
True to the song, love is blind.
The beautiful and the ugly always find their matches.
Musicians took advantage of the romantic day to stage shows that attracted so many people who were eager to spoil each other in the name of love.
But this was not without challenges.
Yours truly is informed that St Valentine’s Day celebrations had so many casualties.
Some women were beaten up by their spouses after being seen with bouquets of flowers they had not sent.
Whether by default or design, marriage wreckers went overdrive this year by sending flowers and gifts to unsuspecting people before informing their spouses that they were being cheated.
Some conservative people, however, said there saw no reason of celebrating one day, saying they loved their spouses dearly everyday.
“Akati mukadzi anodiwa zuva rimwe ndiani. I love my wife and express my love to her everyday. I do not wait for February 14 to express my love to her,” said Mr Charles Yaso of Glen Norah.
He said instead of spending money on flowers, it was much more important to put food on the table and ensure utility bills were paid.
“Rudo harudyiwe. Better go to work than spend the whole day moving up and down the streets claiming to be in love,” a Harare transporter Mr Arthur Matambo said.
Let the beautiful times roll.
Inotambika mughetto.
Peter Tanyanyiwa
Online Reporter