Floral companies make a killing each February
Red, White and Pink Day as I like to call it, draws near. The expired Halloween candy is devoured, the credit cards are maxed out on Christmas gifts and the pounding headaches of New Year’s Day are alleviated. Valentine’s Day has struck and it’s not even February. Blame it on seductive marketing all you want, but the true culprits are ourselves. We love the idea of love. This is no bad thing, but pinning all of our hopes and fears to a single date on the calendar is simply stupid.
Romance is spontaneous, thrilling and unexpected. At least it should be. Unplanned romances are the best kind. The ones where an innocent cup of coffee with someone you just met evolves to kissing in the rain. The ones where two best friends toss aside their bashful doubts and pointless excuses and admit they’ve fallen for one another. Valentine’s Day shoots romance in the foot. It pressures couples into reserving a table for two at restaurants they can’t afford. It asks single folk to question their lifestyle choices. It leads to awkward dates and regrettable late night rendezvous’. All this, because of a ‘traditional’ holiday with mysterious origins.
Remember those print outs on Valentine’s Day passed around in grade school classrooms? Not much has changed since then. The facts are still fact-less and the stories are still just stories. History.com has been so gracious as to convey two popular legends.
1. One legend contends that Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he outlawed marriage for young men – his crop of potential solidiers. Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When Valentine’s actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death.
2. According to one legend, Valentine actually sent the first “valentine” greeting himself. While in prison, it is believed that Valentine fell in love with a young girl – who may have been his jailor’s daughter – who visited him during his confinement. Before his death, it is alleged that he wrote her a letter, which he signed “From your Valentine,” an expression that is still used today. Although the truth behind the Valentine legends is murky, the stories certainly emphasize his appeal as a sympathetic, heroic, and, most importantly, romantic figure. It’s no surprise that by the Middle Ages, Valentine was one of the most popular saints in England and France.
I remember pouring over these tales as a child. They’re… nice. But really, what significance do they hold? Martin Luther King fought against racism, Christmas commemorates the birth of Christ, Halloween traditionally honoured the dead, Eid ul-Fitr celebrates 30 days of religious fasting, I could go on. I’m not saying that love is not important enough to justify a holiday. If I banned Valentine’s Day, I’d have to ban Father’s Day and Mother’s Day too.
The point is, with holidays such as these or any holiday in fact, one has the choice to celebrate or not to celebrate. Commemorative days do not apply to all of us when considering ethnicity, gender, religion, political standpoint, circumstance etc. So why fret over a day that needn’t concern us at all?
I ask you to spend the 14th of February any which way you like. Wake up to your golden retriever nuzzling your face, call your grandmother and thank her for the cinnamon hearts she sends every year, or plan a romantic evening with your sweetheart. Just like any other day of the year, this one is yours. So, claim it.
Happy Valentine’s Day.
sending...
