The origins of Valentine’s Day date back to ancient Roman times, when women would line up to be hit by men with the belief that it would make them fertile, according to Noel Lenski. This took place from Feb. 13 to 15, during the celebrations and feast of Lupercalia. These celebrations also included a matchmaking lottery, in which men drew women’s names from a jar, and the pair would be coupled up during the festival, doing God knows what.
And on Feb. 14, Emperor Claudius II executed two men named Valentine in different years during the 3rd century CE. Their memory was then preserved and honored by the Catholic Church with the celebrations of St. Valentine’s Day.
Centuries later, Valentine’s Day was romanticized by influential authors such as Chaucer and Shakespeare, and card exchange quickly gained popularity as it diffused from Britain to the rest of the world. And in 1917, Hallmark utilized the culture of consumerism and started the mass production of valentines, changing the concept of Valentine’s Day.
With profits in mind, businesses are sure to jump on board with the holiday. With the demand for Valentine’s Day products, businesses are bound to make money. According to the Statistic Brain Institute Research, the average annual spending on Valentine’s Day in 2017 spending was around $13 trillion, with the average consumer spendings around $116.
My opinion on this? I believe Valentine’s Day is overrated.
My creative writing teacher once mentioned that he hated this holiday, that Valentine’s Day is so commercialized that it lost its true meaning. If you truly love and are worthy of your significant other, you should show him or her everyday through acts of love and kindness. It makes no sense to prove your love only one day out of the entire year.
Gift giving should be something you should do for someone, to show your love and appreciation. Valentine’s Day is a good day to do just that, but sometimes it’s taken out of proportion. One would be upset it they didn’t receive a Valentine gift, and who knows what might happen to the poor person who will be in that path of rage?
The idea of receiving a gift has become an expectation that everyone feels pressured to meet. But unfortunately, not everyone who wants to meet that can. Discouraged by the lack of a significant other, some people may go into a world of self-pity and celebrate SAD, Single Awareness Day, eating their self-bought chocolate. When people think of Valentine's Day, they think of relationships, gifts and extravagant gestures. These thoughts are so embedded within society, so it’s understandable why one would be upset. Valentine's Day is still being romanticized, and we we want to be pampered and adored endlessly.
Valentine’s Day is a day to celebrate of love, but there’s more to love than being in a relationship. There’s more to life than sulking around and being helplessly desperate to find someone.
Why focus on one upsetting day of your relationship when you had plenty of others to look back on and have plenty of others look forward to? If you didn’t receive what you want or didn’t receive a gift, then consider all the other things your significant other has cared for you. Even the smallest acts of kindness count as a sign of care, affection and intimacy.
And for the single people: why gloom around when you can make the best of the situation? Whether you have a crush on someone or lost the a significant other, there are brighter sides of the situation, and things will get better if you try and pull through. You can try to talk to that somebody, or mend that terrible relationship. It’s a lot easier than it sounds, but through it all, you can treat this as any other day. After all, feeling sorry for yourself will you more harm than good. And yeah, it hurts a lot sometimes.
Yes, having that special someone will make someone’s life, but we can’t rely on it as our one true source of happiness. I’ve witnessed people ruin good friendships, so caught up in the idea of receiving chocolates. I’ve noticed people feeling defeated because they don’t have a date. I’ve seen people make a huge deal out of this holiday — a far bigger deal than what is really necessary.
It all comes down to this: being in a relationship does not make you better than anyone else, and being in a relationship does not determine your self worth.
Just take a look around you, at your family and friends. You are never truly alone. Remember all those people you found attractive, all those people you have secret crushes on? Remember all those times you looked up to someone as a kid, thinking that you want to be that person in the future? That’s you. You’ve been the person people crush on for many people, and you are the role model other people look up to. Whether it’s in a romantic way or not, you’ve been loved, and you are loved.
