The ordinary Valentine’s Day consists of exchanging thoughtful cards or other tokens of affection like chocolates or flowers. The idea of Valentine’s Day is to celebrate love, friendship and admiration. I strongly believe that celebrating Valentine’s Day is overrated mainly due to the foggy understanding of the history of the day.
The holiday as we know it today is celebrated as a day of romance; however, the day was initially intended to remember the martyrdom Saint Valentine who was executed on Feb. 14. It was alleged that before his death, he wrote a young girl a letter and signed it “From your Valentine.”. This saying is often used throughout the month and has evolved since . The concept of gifting valentines first began by companies like Hallmark. They made Valentine’s Day cards in 1912 due to the decline in popularity of postcards. Overall, the origin of this day has little to nothing to do with romance. Arguably, the idea that love should be celebrated on a set day is a young idea. Some say that it is a day to appreciate your significant other; however, why pick one day a year to express your love for the people you care for instead of throughout the other 364 days of the year?
Like most, Romantic Comedies are one of my favorite genres of movies. However, I strongly believe that these movies give viewers higher expectations of what they should be receiving from Valentine’s Day. Globally, people look forward to gifting and receiving valentines, but when they do not receive these surprises they feel sorrow, whether they express that feeling or not. Movies and shows make you believe that even if someone you have rarely spoken to every other day of the year, there is still a possibility that out of nowhere they will come out of the blue and confess their love for you in a grand manner which gives off unrealistic expectations. Gestures like hijacking the school’s sound system and performing “Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You” to the entire school seen in “10 Things I Hate About You” or building the house of your dreams to win you over like “The Notebook” are far from reality and ultimately should not be expected from anyone. With Valentine’s Day continuing to get bigger and bigger every year, more money is spent on gifts.
Is Valentine’s Day even still about love if it is focused on making money? The United States alone spends an estimated amount of $23.9 billion on Valentine’s Day. About 43 million Americans receive a gift that they do not want, resulting in $10 billion in gifts being returned, thrown out, or regifted. This time of year, marketing teams and PR brands work over time making sure that they too indulge in the bright red and pink banners with couples entangled everywhere you look to encourage you to buy their products.
My problem with Valentine’s Day is its magnification of the concepts of love in today’s society. Now, I feel that people value the price of gifts and a cute post on social media apps over experiencing love. What once was a day of remembrance to Saint Valentine, is now focused on what someone bought you and the effort or price needed. I am all for expressing your appreciation to people, yet the values that most people focus on are not realistic. It is important to express how much people mean to you, however you can do so in a manner that does not require buying heart-shaped chocolates.
