Da de San Valentn

El da de San Valentn es una celebracin tradicional que ha sido asimilada por la

Iglesia Catlica Romana con la designacin de San Valentn como patrn de los
enamorados. Se hizo popular en muchos pases, y en tiempos modernos
especialmente en los anglosajones expandindose a otros lugares a partir del
siglo XX principalmente el da en que las parejas de enamorados expresan su
amor y cario mutuamente. Se celebra el 14 de febrero, onomstico de san
Valentn. En algunos pases se conoce como da de los enamorados y en otros
como el da del amor y la amistad.

Historia
Durante la antigedad se celebraba en Roma una fiesta pagana dedicada a la
fertilidad, llamada Lupercalia. Durante esta fiesta las mujeres esperaban ser
golpeadas con ltigos hechos de piel de cabras y perros, mojados en la misma
sangre de estos animales, ya que crean que este ritual les otorgaba fertilidad.
Siglos ms tarde, en el ao 496, el Papa Gelasius I prohibi la celebracin
de Lupercalia e instaur el 14 de febrero como da de la fiesta de San Valentn. En
1382, el escritor ingls, Geoffrey Chaucer, escribi un poema titulado Parlamento
de los pjaros, en el que se menciona por primera vez al Da de San Valentn
como un da de festejo para los enamorados. A partir del poema de Chaucer, se
comenz a considerar el Da de San Valentn como un da dedicado al amor.
Dieciocho aos ms tarde, el Rey Carlos VI de Francia, cre la Corte del Amor,
mediante la cual, el primer domingo de cada mes y durante el Da de San Valentn,
se efectuaban una serie de competencias en los que los participantes competan
para conseguir pareja entre las doncellas cortesanas. En 1416, el duque francs,
Carlos de Orleans, tras haber sido capturado en la Batalla de Azincourt y
encerrado en la Torre de Londres, escribi una carta de San Valentn a su
esposa Bonne de Armagnac. Esta carta es en la actualidad, la carta de Valentn
ms antigua en existencia. A partir del siglo XV, la celebracin del Da de San
Valentn como da de los enamorados, se fue popularizando en Francia y Gran
Bretaa. Con el paso del tiempo, esta festividad se fue poniendo de moda en otras
partes de Europa como Alemania e Italia. Tambin, a partir del siglo XV, se hizo
costumbre escribir poemas o Valentinas entre enamorados. Desde principios del
siglo XIX, comenz en Gran Bretaa la comercializacin de esta fiesta con la
fabricacin masiva de tarjetas genricas del Da de San Valentn, con frases
hechas y adornos.

En Angloamrica hacia 1842, Esther ngel Howland comenz a vender las

primeras tarjetas postales masivas de san Valentn, conocidas como valentines,
con smbolos como la forma del corazn o de Cupido. Tambin en este da es
comn la tradicin de regalar rosas a aquellas personas a las que se tiene un
afecto especial.

Existen diversas teoras que otorgan a esta fecha el origen del Da de los
Enamorados. En los pases nrdicos es durante estas fechas cuando se
emparejan y aparean los pjaros, de ah que este periodo se vea como un smbolo
de amor y de creacin.

En Otros Pases
El da de san Valentn es tpicamente occidental, pues se remonta a la Europa
germnica (incluido el actual Reino Unido) desde donde pasara a los Estados
Unidos y all a gran parte del mundo, pero actualmente se ha extendido a otros
pases, como China, Japn y Taiwn.

En Argentina (14 de febrero), se le llama "Da de los enamorados", y se

celebra la unin entre las parejas. No es usual el envo de tarjetas o
corazones, algo que es considerado ms propio del mundo anglosajn.
Tampoco es el nico da relacionado con el amor: la semana previa al Da del
Amigo (20 de julio), se celebra la Semana de la Dulzura, que ha ido
adquiriendo gran popularidad en los ltimos aos. En esta semana es habitual
regalar golosinas y besos.
En Bolivia el llamado Da del amor y la amistad es el 21 de septiembre. Es
el primer da de primavera y tradicionalmente las parejas de novios
intercambian flores, regalos y tarjetas.
En Brasil el llamado 'Da dos Namorados' (da de los novios) es el 12 de
junio, en memoria de San Antonio de Padua, santo famoso por ser
casamentero. Las parejas de novios cambian regalos y tarjetas. Se celebra en
esta fecha, ya que febrero es el mes en que se celebra el carnaval.
En Centroamrica tambin se conoce como Da del amor y la amistad o Da
del cario. Las personas lo demuestran haciendo de intercambio por ejemplo
amigos secretos, regalando rosas los hombres a las mujeres, chocolates y
pequeos detalles que demuestren amor y amistad.
En Chile se conoce como da de los enamorados, siendo un da donde las
parejas (sean novios o esposos) celebran el amor y la unin del uno con el
otro. El da de los enamorados se celebra el 14 de febrero.

En China ya exista el Qi Qiao Jie (da para mostrar las habilidades),

celebrado el sptimo da del sptimo mes del calendario lunar.
En Colombia se celebra Da del Amor y la Amistad o Da de Amor y
Amistad (Anteriormente se le llamaba "Da de los Novios"): se celebra el
tercer sbado de septiembre. Es comn la tradicin del "amigo secreto", que
consiste en introducir en un recipiente papeles pequeos con los nombres de
los participantes, luego, cada uno va extrayendo un papel y deben dar un
presente a la persona cuyo nombre diga el papel en el da que establezcan, en
el transcurso de estos das es popular lo que se conoce como endulzar, que
como su nombre lo dice, consiste en dar annimamente dulces, comida,
bombones, cartas de amor, rosas, etc.; voluntariamente, hasta el da en que se
deba dar el regalo definitivo, y romper el anonimato si se desea;
En Costa Rica se llama "Da de San Valentn", tambin "Da de los
enamorados" o "Da del Amor y la Amistad" y se festeja entre parejas, familia y
amigos, se acostumbra regalar chocolates, flores, regalos, tarjetas y en la
noche las parejas acostumbran tener una cena romntica.
En Cuba se celebra el 14 de febrero y se conoce como: "da de los
enamorados" o "da de san Valentn". Se ha vuelto ya una tradicin que en
este da se entreguen obsequios y flores a su pareja. Adems, en algunos
centros se crean buzones donde se expresan el afecto hacia otras personas;
ya sean amigos o enamorados. Los jvenes esperan con jbilo esta fecha
pues as pueden expresar a quien aman todo lo que sienten.
En Ecuador se celebra el 14 de febrero con rosas, tarjetas, serenatas,
cenas nocturnas entre parejas casadas, de novios y amigos.
En Egipto es el 4 de noviembre.
En Espaa esta fiesta se empez a celebrar a mediados del siglo XX, con
el motivo de incentivar la compra de regalos. A menudo se dice que esta fiesta
la introdujo la cadena de grandes almacenes Galeras Preciados.3 Se celebra
el 14 de febrero.
En Estados Unidos Se conoce como el Da de los Novios o el Da de los
Enamorados, se celebra el Amor pero tambin la Amistad. Es frecuente ver las
personas caminando por las calles con flores, globos y chocolates que han
recibido o regalarn a otras personas.
En Japn, adems del festival de Tanabata versin local del Qi Qiao
Jie chino, el Da de San Valentn se celebra desde febrero de 1958,
impulsado inicialmente por la compaa de chocolates Morozoff. Como
particularidad, se destaca el hecho de que son las mujeres quienes regalan
chocolates a los hombres, ya sean sus familiares, amigos o compaeros de
trabajo. En este ltimo caso, el obsequio se vuelve casi una obligacin, pues
deben regalarles chocolates a todos sus colegas giri-choco, de giri:deber,
y choco: apcope de chokoreeto: chocolate). Para el hombre que la mujer
ama verdaderamente se regala el honmei choco (chocolate favorito). Como
una especie de compensacin, inventado por los pasteleros en 1980, los
hombres devuelven el favor un mes despus, el 14 de marzo, celebracin

conocida como White Day (da blanco), en el que se suelen regalar obsequios
de color blanco, como chocolate blanco, malvaviscos o incluso ropa interior.4

Transport
Transport or transportation is the movement of people, animals and goods from
one location to another. Modes of
transport include air, rail, road, water, cable, pipeline and space. The field can be
divided into infrastructure, vehicles and operations. Transport is important because
it enables trade between persons, which is essential for the development of
civilizations.
Transport infrastructure consists of the fixed installations
including roads, railways, airways, waterways, canals and pipelines and terminals
such as airports, railway stations, bus stations, warehouses, trucking terminals,
refueling depots (including fueling docks and fuel stations) and seaports. Terminals
may be used both for interchange of passengers and cargo and for maintenance.
Vehicles traveling on these networks may
include automobiles, bicycles, buses, trains, trucks, people, helicopters, watercraft,
spacecraftand aircraft.
Operations deal with the way the vehicles are operated, and the procedures set for
this purpose including financing, legalities and policies. In the transport industry,
operations and ownership of infrastructure can be either public or private,
depending on the country and mode.
Passenger transport may be public, where operators provide scheduled services,
or private. Freight transport has become focused on containerization, although bulk
transport is used for large volumes of durable items. Transport plays an important
part in economic growth and globalization, but most types cause air
pollution and use large amounts of land. While it is heavily subsidized by
governments, good planning of transport is essential to make traffic flow and
restrain urban sprawl.

A mode of transport is a solution that makes use of a particular type of vehicle,

infrastructure and operation. The transport of a person or of cargo may involve one
mode or several of the modes, with the latter case being called intermodal or
multimodal transport. Each mode has its own advantages and disadvantages, and
will be chosen for a trip on the basis of cost, capability, and route.

Mode
Human-powered

Human-powered transportremains common in developing countries.

Human powered transport, a form of sustainable transportation, is the transport of
people and/or goods using human muscle-power, in the form
of walking, running and swimming. Modern technology has allowed machines to
enhance human power. Human-powered transport remains popular for reasons of
cost-saving, leisure, physical exercise, and environmentalism; it is sometimes the
only type available, especially in underdeveloped or inaccessible regions.
Although humans are able to walk without infrastructure, the transport can be
enhanced through the use of roads, especially when using the human power with
vehicles, such as bicycles and inline skates. Human-powered vehicles have also
been developed for difficult environments, such as snow and water, by watercraft
rowing and skiing; even the air can be entered with human-powered aircraft.

Animal-powered
Animal-powered transport is the use of working animals for the movement of
people and commodities. Humans may ride some of the animals directly, use them
as pack animals for carrying goods, or harness them, alone or in teams, to
pull sleds or wheeled vehicles.
Air

An Air France Airbus A318 lands at London Heathrow Airport.

A fixed-wing aircraft, commonly called airplane, is a heavier-than-air craft where
movement of the air in relation to the wings is used to generate lift. The term is
used to distinguish this from rotary-wing aircraft, where the movement of the lift
surfaces relative to the air generates lift. A gyroplane is both fixed-wing and rotarywing. Fixed-wing aircraft range from small trainers and recreational aircraft to
large airliners and military cargo aircraft.
Two things necessary for aircraft are air flow over the wings for lift and an area
for landing. The majority of aircraft also need an airportwith the infrastructure to
receive maintenance, restocking, refueling and for the loading and unloading of
crew, cargo and passengers. While the vast majority of aircraft land and take off on
land, some are capable of take off and landing on ice, snow and calm water.
The aircraft is the second fastest method of transport, after the rocket. Commercial
jets can reach up to 955 kilometres per hour (593 mph), single-engine aircraft 555
kilometres per hour (345 mph). Aviation is able to quickly transport people and
limited amounts of cargo over longer distances, but incur high costs and energy
use; for short distances or in inaccessible places helicopters can be used.[1]As of
April 28, 2009 The Guardian article notes that, "the WHO estimates that up to
500,000 people are on planes at any time." [2]
Rail

The New York City Subway is the world's largest rapid transit system by length of
routes and by number of stations.

InterCityExpress, a German high-speed passenger train

Rail transport is where a train runs along a set of two parallel steel rails, known as
a railway or railroad. The rails are anchored perpendicular to ties (or sleepers) of
timber, concrete or steel, to maintain a consistent distance apart, or gauge. The
rails and perpendicular beams are placed on a foundation made of concrete, or
compressed earth and gravel in a bed of ballast. Alternative methods
include monorail and maglev.
A train consists of one or more connected vehicles that operate on the rails.
Propulsion is commonly provided by a locomotive, that hauls a series of
unpowered cars, that can carry passengers or freight. The locomotive can be
powered by steam, diesel or by electricitysupplied by trackside systems.
Alternatively, some or all the cars can be powered, known as a multiple unit. Also,
a train can be powered by horses, cables, gravity, pneumatics and gas turbines.
Railed vehicles move with much less friction than rubber tires on paved roads,
making trains more energy efficient, though not as efficient as ships.
Intercity trains are long-haul services connecting cities;[3] modern high-speed rail is
capable of speeds up to 350 km/h (220 mph), but this requires specially built
track. Regional and commuter trains feed cities from suburbs and surrounding
areas, while intra-urban transport is performed by highcapacity tramways and rapid transits, often making up the backbone of a city's
public transport. Freight trains traditionally used box cars, requiring manual loading
and unloading of the cargo. Since the 1960s, container trains have become the
dominant solution for general freight, while large quantities of bulk are transported
by dedicated trains.

Road

The Harbor Freeway is often heavily congested at rush hour in Downtown Los
Angeles.
A road is an identifiable route, way or path between two or more places.[4] Roads
are typically smoothed, paved, or otherwise prepared to allow easy travel;[5] though
they need not be, and historically many roads were simply recognizable routes
without any formal constructionor maintenance.[6] In urban areas, roads may pass
through a city or village and be named as streets, serving a dual function as urban
space easement and route.[7]
The most common road vehicle is the automobile; a wheeled passenger vehicle
that carries its own motor. Other users of roads
include buses, trucks, motorcycles, bicycles and pedestrians. As of 2010, there
were 1.015 billion automobiles worldwide. Road transport offers a complete
freedom to road users to transfer the vehicle from one lane to the other and from
one road to another according to the need and convenience. This flexibility of
changes in location, direction, speed, and timings of travel is not available to other
modes of transport. It is possible to provide door to door service only by road
transport.
Automobiles provide high flexibility with low capacity, but require high energy and
area use, and are the main source of noise and air pollution in cities; buses allow
for more efficient travel at the cost of reduced flexibility.[8] Road transport by truck is
often the initial and final stage of freight transport.
Water

Built by the Dutch to transport spices, now used by the local fishermen to get to the
sea, Negombo Dutch canal, Sri Lanka

Automobile ferry in Croatia

Water transport is movement by means of a watercraftsuch as
a barge, boat, ship or sailboatover a body of water, such as
a sea, ocean, lake, canal or river. The need for buoyancy is common to watercraft,
making the hull a dominant aspect of its construction, maintenance and
appearance.
In the 19th century the first steam ships were developed, using a steam engine to
drive a paddle wheel or propeller to move the ship. The steam was produced in
a boiler using wood or coal and fed through a steam external combustion engine.
Now most ships have an internal combustion engine using a slightly refined type
of petroleum called bunker fuel. Some ships, such as submarines, use nuclear
power to produce the steam. Recreational or educational craft still use wind power,
while some smaller craft use internal combustion engines to drive one or
more propellers, or in the case of jet boats, an inboard water jet. In shallow draft
areas, hovercraft are propelled by large pusher-prop fans. (See Marine propulsion.)
Although slow, modern sea transport is a highly efficient method of transporting
large quantities of goods. Commercial vessels, nearly 35,000 in number, carried
7.4 billion tons of cargo in 2007.[9] Transport by water is significantly less costly
than air transport for transcontinental shipping;[10] short sea
shippingand ferries remain viable in coastal areas.[11][12]
Other modes

Pipeline transport sends goods through a pipe; most commonly liquid and gases
are sent, but pneumatic tubes can also send solid capsules using compressed air.
For liquids/gases, any chemically stable liquid or gas can be sent through a

pipeline. Short-distance systems exist for sewage, slurry, water and beer, while
long-distance networks are used for petroleum and natural gas.
Cable transport is a broad mode where vehicles are pulled by cables instead of an
internal power source. It is most commonly used at steep gradient. Typical
solutions include aerial tramway, elevators, escalator and ski lifts; some of these
are also categorized as conveyor transport.
Spaceflight is transport out of Earth's atmosphere into outer space by means of
a spacecraft. While large amounts of research have gone into technology, it is
rarely used except to put satellites into orbit, and conduct scientific experiments.
However, man has landed on the moon, and probes have been sent to all the
planets of the Solar System.
Suborbital spaceflight is the fastest of the existing and planned transport systems
from a place on Earth to a distant other place on Earth. Faster transport could be
achieved through part of a low Earth orbit, or following that trajectory even faster
using the propulsion of the rocket to steer it.