It was Valentine’s Day a little while ago, as most of us know and I wanted to post this earlier but a seasonal flu got in the way – so belatedly I’ll share the Pakistani Valentine’s Day hoo-haa.
Turning the corner we saw that Valentine's Day maddness had begun!
I am used to a bit of fuss and advertising here and there for Valentine’s Day back in Australia, but I really wasn’t expecting there to be anything made of it in Pakistan — how wrong I was! There wasn’t much TV advertising prior to the day, but when my husband and I decided at the last minute to go out for dinner in Islamabad we were bombarded with red hearts and roses at every corner. The first I saw of it was a lone heart shaped helium balloon caught in a tree, I thought ‘how cute, maybe someone here knows its Valentine’s Day’ and then we turned the corner and saw this:
Cardboard hearts covered everything!
Valentine's Day well under way at the Flower Village
I was shocked — there were cars everywhere, and young boys selling love heart helium balloons at every car window, and the flower market was insanely busy. Red roses abounded and business was booming. My lonely tree-caught heart balloon was obviously not the only sign of Valentine’s Day in Pakistan.
My husband asked me if I wanted some balloons, but i figured I could do without!!
Arriving at the restaurant was no less love-festy — the lighting was dim, and there were scented candles on tables, more helium balloons festooned in a net on the ceiling and streamers and love hearts all over. Everything was starting to feel sickly sweet!!
The interior of Pappasellis in Islamabad -- lovey-dovey to the max!
Needless to say we had a pleasant dinner, playing everyone’s favourite game of ‘couple spotting’ — basically guessing if a lovey pair is married or not — the give away is if they keep casting furtive glances around the restaurant! Which brings me to the most puzzling thing about all this — I don’t know if its just me, but I kind of had the impression that Valentine’s Day, whilst being celebrated my married couples, was more of a ‘sweetheart’ thing – so how was it that in Pakistan, a conservative kind of country was the celebration so very big??? Of course it would be naiive of me to think that things don’t go on behind the scenes, but this is a very public display going on here, so I was somewhat gobsmacked by the whole thing.
I can’t remember how many times I must have said ‘I can’t believe it’, but my husband was pretty tired of the phrase by the end of dinner, only to have me start it up again when we were on our way home and saw that the tree-lined street outside had been all lit up for the occassion. Well Pakistan, you have more than outdone yourself on Valentine’s Day, as strange as it was for me to see!! I guess it is a reminder that Love, even sappy Valentines-style Love, is a universal thing :)
The trees lit up in fairy lights as we were leaving Islamabad
That was lovely..You are talking about Islamabad, which is still considered a posh and trendy city, if you would have been in Peshawar at the Valentine’s Day, you would have been twice as shocked as you are now. Even here they do it in a big way as if its some religious festival :p