Valentines Day at Westside High School
Valentines days is a time to celebrate romance and love, but the origins of this festival of candy and cupids was actually dark, bloody and a bit muddled. From February 13 to the 15 when the Romans celebrated the feast Lupercalia it was a time of sadness and unhappy people. Though, no one has a clear idea of when exactly the holiday started, historians have tracked this infamous holiday back to ancient Rome were men would hit on women by actually laying hands on women. This day of the romance is named after the Christian martyr and dates back to the 5th century. Valentines day gets its name from a famous saint, but there are several stories of who he was. The popular belief about St Valentine is that he was a priest from Rome in the third century.
Today, Valentines day is one of the most popular holidays for people of all ages. Gifts, Flowers candies and, much more are exchanged and given to friends and significant others. “I remember back in elementary when I would have little candy grams to pass out to my friends” says John Rich. Here at Westside Valentines day is a holiday that students you cannot miss. For some it a way to get free candy from friends and hoping that teachers will allow them eat in class, but for others it’s about showing someone love or to their significant other.
A typical Valentines day at Westside sounds like this. In the morning as you walk through the commons you see all the guys huddled up with there gifts and sweet treats that they spent hours think about or spent time putting and planning the gift out. As far as the girls you will see teddy bears and sweet treats all around ready to pass out to all their close friends. By the time lunch rolls around you will see all the students hanging out with friends, eating and passing out more sweet treats. Of course you will see the couples and friends that just go all out with balloons and specials gifts. It is pretty hard to over look big red heart balloons and big teddy bear being hauled around. As the day comes to an end and student begin leaving, you might see tons of candy wrappers and gift bag just lay around waiting to be sweep away by the janitors. You might also see the balloons floating around in the commons.
Overall Valentines day at Westside is time of love and fun.
Euriah McQueen is a 12th grader and this is her fourth year on the Howler New staff. Her freshman year she was in photojournalism where she took photos...