National 7 (Spotlight Weekly)

Changing Trends

The culture of celebrating Valentine's day is becoming more and more popular among Nepali youths

By A CORRESPONDENT

Gift and card shops were seen jam packed last week. Youths would come out with a packet of wrapped gift or a card or a bouquet of flowers. A naīve workaholic person would wonder "What is the occasion?" Wedding season. No. They were for the Valentine's day.

Valentine's day that is celebrated every year on February 14, is fast catching up among the MTV generation of traditional Nepali community.

On February 14, young couples covered streets, parks, restaurants and other recreational areas dressed in their best outfits, carrying bouquets of flowers and cards. To make time for this day, many students even bunked classes and office goers made pretexts to ask for a leave.

Not many years ago, the word Valentine's day was not common in Nepali community. Very few people knew about it. Celebrating it was a distant thing. However, with more options of communication like satellite TV channels, the Internet, FM Radios and more people going abroad, the western culture quickly entered and spread among the Nepali community. Valentine's day is one of the cultures, which has become quickly acceptable in the Nepali community. These days not just the youths from elite class families, but all urban youth and even some rural youths celebrate Valentine's day.

While the youths welcome the trends of changing times, others frown at the younger generation for forgetting their own culture and adopting the western ones.

"There is nothing bad in celebrating Valentine's day. After all it is a festival of love. And at such times, when the world is marred by violence and conflict, love is what we need," said Sajeena Manandhar of Naya Bazar. "What is wrong in adopting a foreign culture that is good?"

Not everyone, particularly people of the older generation, agree with Sajeena's version. "If we start adopting the western culture so extensively, one day we will forget all our traditional culture and festivals," said Sita Ram Pande. "We will lose our identity."

Pande and Manandhar could differ in their opinions, but the social trends particularly among the younger generation, has been going through a lot of transformation in recent years. While such transformations are normal phenomenon in society; in recent years the pace of the change has accelerated and differences have become conspicuous too fast. Valentine's day, which has by now almost become an integral part of the urban youth culture, had entered Nepal less than a decade ago.

Valentine's day was started by Saint Valentine. But there is no one common theory about its beginning. One legend contends that Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he outlawed marriage for young men -- his crop of potential soldiers. Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When Valentine's actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death. Ever since, couples remember him.

EXPOSITION
Clear and Pure

Emerging artists (students) of Fine Arts College, the only academic institution teaching fine arts in the country, have come together as a group to exhibit their collection of paintings depicting the natural and cultural heritage of the country on canvas.

The exhibition titled 'a connection with you' showcases beautiful paintings of varied nature created by all ten members of the group. Dominated by the paintings of landscapes, the emerging artists have expressed the beauty of nature in its purest form. The colors and forms used do not have any deviation from the real picture. Green for trees, a bluish taint for woods seen from far away distance, bluish for waters in rivers, white for water falls all depict the clearest expression of nature.

Other paintings show cultural heritage, lifestyles, religious monuments and some free imaginative creations. A collage shows the difficulties and pains the Nepali people are facing during the times of conflict, while another panting shows the innocence of a child enjoying in his fairyland.

The beauty of the landscapes is clear from a distance. Houses, hills, woods, waterfalls, rivers and lakes all are painted beautifully. The paintings are really soothing to the eyes.

The group named "Oath" was formed early last year with Anil Jyapu, Anil Prajapati, Bhawana Manandhar, Bikash Manandhar, Bikash Malakar, Bishal Manandhar, Devendra Thumkeli, Ganga Shrestha, Ghanashyam Malla, Mahima Singh, Nirajan Manandhar, Sajita Laxmi Shrestha, Samit Shrestha, Sanjeev Maharjan, Subash Khadka and Saroj Kushwaha as members. The exhibition of this group was held at Gallery Nine, Lazimpat from 14-19 February.