June 20, 2008	Friday	Jamadi-us-Sani 15, 1429

MOSCOW: Russia’s first lady has joined up with the country’s Orthodox Church to organise a fidelity festival to replace the western inspired Saint Valentine’s Day, organisers said on Thursday.

Family, Love and Loyalty Day on July 8 will mark the 780th anniversary of the death of Saints Pyotr and Fevronia, a married couple persecuted for their love and, according to legend, buried in the same coffin.

Russian Orthodox Christians and nationalists have voiced opposition to Saint Valentine’s Day, which they dismiss as a corrupt Western import.

“Saint Valentine’s Day is a celebration of love. But being in love does mean loving always and remaining faithful,” church leader Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk told a briefing in Moscow.

President Dmitry Medvedev’s wife Svetlana will head the organising committee for the new holiday, “giving the project more status,” organiser Yelena Zelinskaya said.

The organisers have called on men to give their wives camomile flowers and have vowed to make it a national holiday if the project succeeds. National television will run special programming devoted to the celebration.—AFP