It is with great sadness that I observe growing nationalistic trends in Russia. Russian leadership goes to great lengths to get rid of the “negative Western influence.” Did you really think the Cold War was over?
Svetlana Medvedeva, the wife of Russian President-elect, recently announced her wish to introduce a Russian analogue of St. Valentine’s Day — and a religious one, too!
Russia has been embracing Christianity a lot more recently (Remember these pictures of bare-chested Putin wearing a crucifix?). Putin is quite a regular at the Christmas, Easter etc services. Now photos of Mrs. Medvedeva wearing a headscarf (all women are supposed to wear them inside an orthodox Christian church) and lighting a candle or talking to a priest are all over the Russian newspapers.
The holiday is supposed to celebrate two Russian Saints, Peter and Fevronia. Peter was a Russian prince. An evil serpent in a human form was paying supposedly unwanted nightly visits to his wife’s sister.
Peter, a noble Russian guy, killed that serpent, but the latter’s blood left his body covered in painful ulcers. Then he met a very wise peasant girl named Fevronia who asked him to marry her in exchange for curing him. He said he would marry her, but, in a typical Russian fairytale fashion, ignored his promise as soon as she helped him. But then his
ulcers came back, so he had to marry her. The prince and princess ruled over their share of Russia, became popular with the peasants, and lived happily ever after. When they died, they were buried apart at first, but then it was discovered their bodied ended up in the same coffin.
This story is warm and fuzzy, but I have a couple of questions to ask. Given that Fevronia blackmailed Paul into marrying her, can this holiday be viewed as a celebration of a female empowerment? Or as an indication to Russian women about how to treat their men?
As an atheist who is particularly allergic to the orthodox Christian tradition, I find this holiday disturbing. Valentine’s used to be a religious holiday, but it was consumerized a long time ago. So what is going to happen to Valentine’s in Russia?
If this “authentically Russian” holiday is indeed introduced to Russia, the number of holidays when single people feel miserable will be doubled. Or, if Presidents Medvedev and Putin like the plan, selling and buying traditional Valentine’s cards and gifts will be, you know, discouraged. After all, Saudi Arabia introduced a ban on selling red roses on Feb 14, 2008. Iran and Kuwait made repeated attempt to ban the holiday altogether. Russia is already following these countries’ example in terms of reducing democracy; isn’t it about time it banned Valentine’s, too?