For a beautiful Ukrainian woman (like me:)), Valentine’s Day can be the best day of the year. I know that Western men sometimes feel that women take their romantic gestures for granted, but you can be sure that a Ukrainian beauty will always appreciate a Valentine’s Day gift. Whether it is flowers or candy or perfume or perhaps something a little more personal, Ukrainian women always appreciate being appreciated and are thrilled to repay the warmth of their lovers’ kindnesses with some special warmth of their own. True, February in the Ukraine can be bitterly cold but that doesn’t mean that the fires that burn within are any less hot.
14 of February in Ukraine as also in many other countries is the Day of St. Valentine and all beloved. In this day is supposed to present gifts and cards in the shape of hearts to the people you love. This holiday came to Ukraine recently, and became very popular among young people. According to the latest public polls, about 63% of the population of the Ukraine celebrate this holiday.

The legend of celebrating of the St. Valentine’s Day has its roots deep in the Middle Ages. There is almost nothing known about the life of the real Christian Valentine (born in 3 century A.D. in the settlement Terni – Roman Empire). They say that he was a bishop, who helped young beloved to write love letters, made the peace of those who were in quarrel etc. Then he was arrested by order of Emperor Julius Claudius II, who did not allow his soldier to get married and Valentine married the legionaries secretly.

Being in the prison, he considered to fall in love with the blind daughter of his executioner - and healed her. The other version says, that everything was in opposite: prison guard asked Valentine to cure his daughter and she fell in love with the priest. Before the capital punishment Valentine left the love letter for her: “Yours Valentine!” That’s why the letters in this day are called Valentinki (from 1800) and the very holiday – the St. Valentine’s Day.
But few know that in addition to Valentine's Day, there is such Orthodox holiday. July 8 is the day of the Assumption of the martyr Fevroniya and Orthodox Prince Peter.

According to the teaching of the Church, the wholeness of man was destroyed by the Fall. Before the Fall of Adam and Eve they were like a mirror image of each other, after the Fall, "mirror" was broken, and half of the offspring of Adam and Eve no longer recognize each other. But there is an indivisible unity of the inner marriage, the sacrament which is consecrated by the Church.

They loved each other to death and ... after. Taking monastic vows with the names of David and Euphrosyne, wife bequeathed to put them in a coffin, prepared the tomb with a thin partition. They all died in an instant on July 8, new style, but in violation of the will put them in different tombs and temples in various closed. The next day they were found in a tomb together... Again, people tried to separate them, but the next morning the bodies of the spouses were together again.

Someone can doubt: should I celebrate the holiday, which is not orthodox. But a huge positive point the Valentine's Day is undoubtedly the fact that it bears only a good idea, it is not associated with politics or with a controversial history, it gives people the opportunity to give love and feel loved ...

You've given me a reason
For smiling once again,
You've filled my life with peaceful dreams
and you've become my closest friend.

You've shared your heartfelt secrets
And your trust you've given me,
You showed me how to feel again
To laugh, and love, and see.

If life should end tomorrow
And from this world I should part,
I shall be forever young
For you have touched my heart...