Love Is What Makes the World Go Around Symbols of Love Compiled by James T. Bretzke, SJ From Contributions by his Students

Buganda culture

Whirling Dervish

Botticelli’s Aphrodite

These are Gingko nuts! According to "Sasichanyo"-an ancient Korean agriculture book, a couple ate ginkgo nuts together to make sure their love around March 5th (This day is called "Kyoung Chip" on the lunar calendar, and it means "the day which everything comes out of hibernation") In order to profess their love, a couple prepared the gingko nuts from the previous autumn in advance. The reason that gingko nuts became a symbol of love is that our Korean ancestors believed that a gingko tree could bear fruit when a male and female tree faced each other. And because those trees have a long life (approximately 1,000 years), ancestors also thought that those had loved facing each other for a long time.

In Buganda culture of Uganda in Africa In Buganda culture of Africa: A fundamental sign of love, bonding and peace, reconciliation if you offer those seeds to a visitor, stranger or enemy. A fundamental sign of love, bonding and peace, reconciliation if you offer those seeds to a visitor, stranger or enemy.

The tale of the Cowherd and the Weaving Girl is a love story between the Cowherd, a human being, and the Weaving Girl, a fairy. They fall in love with each other, get married, forced to separate and blocked by the Milky Way. Out of compassion for them, on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month each year, flocks of magpies fly to form a bridge with their bodies over the Milky Way, allowing the Cowherd and the Weaving Girl to meet each other. This story, to some extent, reflects Chinese people's wishes to pursue the freedom of love and marriage. Here's the story taken from the website: http://traditions.cultural-china.com/en/13Traditions289.html The fairy tale of the Cowherd and the Weaving Girl is one of the four most famous folktales of ancient China. It is a classic love story between a fairy and a human being and has a widespread influence. The Qixi Festival is said to have something to do with the fairy tale. Naturally, the seventh day of every seventh month of the lunar calendar has become Chinese Valentine's Day. The tale of the Cowherd and the Weaving Girl is a love story between the Cowherd, a human being, and the Weaving Girl, a fairy. They fall in love with each other, get married, forced to separate and blocked by the Milky Way. Out of compassion for them, on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month each year, flocks of magpies fly to form a bridge with their bodies over the Milky Way, allowing the Cowherd and the Weaving Girl to meet each other. This story, to some extent, reflects Chinese people's wishes to pursue the freedom of love and marriage.  The fairy tale of the Cowherd and the Weaving Girl has made the Qixi Festival the most romantic traditional Chinese festival. Countless poems in Chinese history are in praise of the story, the most famous works being the ancient poem of the Han Dynasty Far in the Skies Is the Cowherd Star, Qixi by Du Mu of the Tang Dynasty and Fairy On the Magpie Bridge by the great ci writer Qin Guan of the Song Dynasty. In addition, traditional Chinese operas like Beijing Opera and Shaanxi opera etc have plays about the Cowherd and the Weaving Girl. The fairy tale also contains Chinese people's understanding about star images. In the tale, the Weaver Girl Star (the Vega) is the brightest star in the constellation Lyra, facing the Cowherd Star (the Altair), the brightest star in the constellation Aquila, across the Milky Way. The Chinese fairy tale of the Cowherd and the Weaving Girl can be seen as a story enjoying equal importance as the Greek myths of Odyssey, Jason, the Argonauts and the Golden Fleece and the ancient European legend of The Ring of the Nibelung etc. On the seventh day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar every year, Chinese women customarily look up into the night sky, searching for the Weaver Girl Star and the Cowherd Star on both sides of the Milky Way and hoping to see their annual gathering. Meanwhile, girls on the ground hope to have clever hands and good sense, just like the Weaving Girl. They also pray for a happy marriage of their own. Thus, the Qixi Festival has been entrenched in Chinese culture

Betel leaves and areca nuts are important symbols of love and marriage in Vietnam. One day before the wedding day, the groom’s family consisting of senior representatives in the extended clan visits the bride’s home with a gift of betel nuts, The offering of areca nuts and betel leaves is originated from the folk tale which illustrates the belief that love is forever and marriage is inseparable, which both families want for the couple

If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.