Vice-President, officials mark Valentine’s Day
The Vice-President, Mr Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, on Sunday joined some Members of Parliament (MPs), government officials and individuals to celebrate this year’s Valentine’s Day with a health walk in Koforidua in the Eastern Region.
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Among the MPs were the Majority Leader, Mr Alban Bagbin, and the MP for Zebilla, Mr Cletus Avoka.
The General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr Johnson Asiedu-Nketia, and some party officials also participated in the walk.
The walk
The walk, which started at the Capital View Hotel, ended at the Jackson Park, where the participants were taken through some workout. As if to undo one another, the participants proved to bystanders that in spite of their busy schedule, they were as fit as fiddle.
The participants later donated assorted food items, including chocolate, to pupils of the Koforidua School for the Deaf to mark Valentine’s Day.
Valentine’s Day
Valentine's Day, also called Saint Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is celebrated on February 14.
It originated as a Western Christian liturgical feast day honouring one early saint named Valentinus, and is recognised as a significant cultural and commercial celebration in many regions around the world, although it is not a public holiday in any country.
Meanwhile, the Special Events Manager of the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA), Mr Ben Anane-Nsiah, has implored Ghanaians to promote agro-based local tourism for a viable economy.
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Mr Anane-Nsiah said cocoa could be a tourist product because of its contribution to the national economy.
A tour to Tetteh Quarshie
Mr Anane-Nsiah made the call last Saturday, during a tour of the Tetteh Quarshie and Jubilee Cocoa Farms at Mampong-Akuapem in the Eastern Region.
The tour was part of the activities to mark this year’s Chocolate Day celebration. The theme was: “Chocolate: The Gift of Love.”
‘Chocolate Day’ was instituted in 2006 to replace the celebration of Valentine’s Day and promote the local consumption of chocolate and other cocoa-based products.
Mr Anane-Nsiah said Chocolate Day should be a day to educate people on healthy lifestyle, and “let us also capitalise on this as a domestic tourism product”.
Tourist clubs
On the tour were 120 students from tourist clubs in some second-cycle institutions from the Greater Accra Region.
A tour guide, Mr Thomas Awuku, briefed the guests on the history behind Tetteh Quarshie and debunked the myth that the pioneer of the cocoa industry in the country swallowed cocoa beans and later defaecated it on his return from Fernando Po, now Equatorial Guinea, in 1879.