Valentine’s Day in Eritrea Life is love

Eritrean couple

Valentine’s Day in Eritrea Life is love

 By Mebrahtu Asfaha,

“Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy love is better than wine.” 

Truly the above verse of a black woman in the songs of Solomon is a manifestation of a passionate love. Similarly, Valentine’s Day, in western tradition, fully and climatically celebrates the romantic love. Certainly, February is a romantic month of love and passion; it is a month of an exchange of gifts and flowers and opening of hearts.

Although, in our Eritrea tradition, Valentine is an alien notion, nevertheless, every day is a little Valentine for Eritrean lovers. Indeed, an outward expression of passion and romantic love is culturally unknown, but the love of the heart that is rightful meaning of the human condition is manifested daily among Eritrean lovers. Interestingly, Eritrean lovers are called and empowered not only by the event of Valentine to walk together as lovers, wherever we may be in the world, but by the great sense of tradition, that is, the consciousness out of which we live as people.

Negatively, the Eritreans, particularly men, will hold firm the view and dismiss the idea of Valentine and all its manifestations as unnecessary event that seek happiness and love in perishable material goods and sinful pursuits. This is why most Eritreans lack the perfection and chiseling of love expressions, and shy away from using learned choice of romantic words. The evidence and importance of sentimental images of love and passion, and the mythological ornaments of love are of little meaning for traditional Eritrean men. Positively, and instead, Eritreans will evoke many of the cultural attributes regarding love and relationships to serve us as an ethical code to follow by our own moral energies.

The Eritrean culture gives us distinctive insights into the wondrous event of love, and correlatively, into our own daily journeying as lovers. To care compassionately for the other is the lifelong calling of the ideal Eritrean lover. Instead of an outward manifestation of gifts in February, the Eritrean lover faithfully will invest his life, his integrity, and his career in the careful nurturing of that special love and unique experience that has evolved in his heart. Blessed with a profound understanding of the essence of love, Eritrean lover prefers to use wisdom and good sense and the strength of intelligent rather than the flowers of love to provide a quiet, yet passionate care to the person that he loves.

Masked behind this unassuming and modest demeanor, there burns a passion and fervor committed to achieve that which is eternal and perennial love that is the most profound reality of human life, clearly, superior to the outward manifestation of Valentine’s paraphernalia. It is likely this kind of love that makes Eritreans dynamic in our relationship, an articulate and thoughtful paterfamilias, dedicated to the enhancement of many amenities in our community, and live in harmony and peaceful coexistence with many different ethnics and religions in our country. May we walk today and all days as true lovers, through the power of love in our hearts?

This article is dedicated for - mea mater dulcissima Fikadu Teklu, and adorable sister Simret Asfaha

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