Valentine's Day... Just A Hallmark Holiday? A Special Holiday Blog Post

Today, February 14th, 2012 is Valentine's Day.

During the course of my life, I have heard from other people, the news, commercials, television shows, and many other sources of information various viewpoints and opinions on Valentine's Day. These opinions range from "it's for couples only" to "it's a stupid holiday" and a few, including myself, love the holiday. But what is Valentine's Day really, and how is it that people today still celebrate it if it's only for couples and seemingly unimportant?

Valentine's Day, or Saint Valentine's Day, has origins well into the Middle Ages. In France and England in those days, February 14th was considered the day that birds began their mating rituals, which added the emphasis of love into the day. Of course, many of you may know that there are a few Saint Valentine's or Valentinus' in history that were martyred based on their work for the Catholic Church.

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. 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. (Source: History.com)

Other stories suggest that Valentine may have been killed for attempting to help Christians escape harsh Roman prisons, where they were often beaten and tortured. According to one legend, an imprisoned Valentine actually sent the first "valentine" greeting himself after he fell in love with a young girl--possibly his jailor's daughter--who visited him during his confinement. Before his death, it is alleged that he wrote her a letter signed "From your Valentine," an expression that is still in use today. (Source: History.com)

There are legends that state that Valentine's Day was instated on February 14th to celebrate Saint Valentine's burial, as he was a very popular saint, but it may also be that it was installed on that day to put a Christian celebratory holiday before February 15th, which was a pagan celebration of a Roman agricultural god, the holiday being called "Lupercalia," which was later outlawed as a holiday anyway. Despite the outlaw, this holiday was also seen as a romantic holiday with a large amount of marriages occurring on that day.

The first recorded celebration of Saint Valentine's Day was in 1382 in Geoffrey Chaucer's book titled: Parlement of Foules. By the 15th century, Valentine's day had been celebrated with love and of presenting loved ones with flowers and confections. Also during this time "valentines" were created to send to others, and later, symbols of love such as Cupid, doves, and hearts helped to make it the modern holiday it is today. Valentine's Day is celebrated around the world in different ways, from Japan, which first held Valentine's Day in 1936 and uses the day to pass out "choko" or chocolates to co-workers, friends, and family, to Latin America where it may be referred to as "Día del Amor y la Amistad" meaning Day of Love and Friendship.

Valentine's Day, to me at least, is the most under-appreciated day of the year. Singles mock and scowl when a girlfriend gets a surprise box of chocolates or a bouquet of flowers from her lover, and then, of course, there are those commercialized Valentine's Day cards that we are all so familiar with. Obligation to write one to every person in our class, at our job, or to our family, no matter who we dislike, who we don't really know, or who is just plain weird. In 2011, the average person spent $116.21 on Valentine's Day, which was up 11% from the previous year (Source: Marketingcharts.com). This number may include wine, presents, dinner, chocolates, flowers, dessert, etc. Not to mention there are plenty of significant others who just feel obligated to do something.

We need to recognize that Valentine's Day is the one day of the year that has been intentionally set aside for us to appreciate someone, or many someone's who we love and cherish. People often mistake Valentine's Day as a day for couples to enjoy each other, but to me, they should be enjoying each other everyday. What about friends and family? Do we not love them as well? Of course it's a different kind of love, but it is love all the same. I'm sure this will surprise no one, but when I was in high school, I used to go out and buy a ton of Valentine's Day candy (before I went organic), and pass it out to whoever would like some at school. It didn't matter to me if I knew them or not, or if I was a little frustrated with them, or if people just grabbed the bag and passed it around themselves. What mattered is that I did something that made me happy and showed that I appreciated people. We live in such a depressed world today that doing something nice for each other, just because we can, is a thing of the past. How many homeless have you walked past without giving them a dollar? One dollar. Not exactly a bank breaker. How many times have you said to yourself: "I really should call my friend *insert name here* but I've just been too busy"? How many personal handwritten letters have you sent in your lifetime? How many days have you gone without hugging your significant other? Not kissing, hugging. There's a big difference.

Love is a very overused word, but the meaning has been diminished over the years. Dictionary.com states that love is "a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person." How many people do you love? How many people love you? How many people do you need to love/love you for you to be happy? How do you show your love? For those of you who have never seen the Disney movie "Enchanted" (my absolute favorite Disney movie next to "Lilo & Stitch"), watch it, and if you do not want to rent it, at least listen to this song as it sums up my point perfectly:

Show how much you love someone today. While Valentine's Day has been a highly commercialize holiday, it is a tradition that has been celebrated for thousands of years and it is still the one day of the year that people really take the time to show their love for someone else. Don't take the ones you love for granted.


To those who more than deserve Valentine's Day acknowledgements:


I have been engaged for one year today to the person I knew the day I first kissed him two and a half years ago I would marry. He is my forever Valentine.


My grandma is irreplaceable to me. Without her I never would have gotten this far in life. We are "kindred spirits."


And my maid-of-honor who will be very unhappy about wearing a dress to my wedding. But we can still talk about nothing for hours on end and have been friends despite "Holly Road Trips."


I hope everyone has a very Happy Valentine's Day.


And for those who would like to read a special Valentine's Day book to your children, try the book below, given to me by my grandma.

References:
www.history.com
www.wikipedia.org
www.marketingcharts.com
www.dictionary.com