During a time of promiscuity and bloodshed, St. Valentine would secretly marry soldiers after Roman Emperor Claudius II forbade marriages and Christianity .
St. Valentine wanted to honor the young couples who wished to be wed, despite marriage being against the law. He was tortured and decapitated for the “crime” of healing a nobleman’s daughter’s blindness, thus causing the family to convert to Christianity and angering Emperor Claudius II.
Valentine was martyred on Feb. 14, in the eighth century.
So, the traditional day where we are expected to express our love by spending too much money to show how much we care is built on a foundation of pain and bloodshed. How romantic.
Nowadays, Feb. 14 is a day where we are expected to buy bouquets of flowers, heart-shaped candies, stuffed animals, and tell your partner how much you love them, as if you only tell them you love them once a year.
It makes no sense to focus on one day out the year making your partner feel special. Are the other 364 days spent making them feel subpar? If you wanted to make your partner feel special you would have done so already.
If you decide not to celebrate Valentine’s Day — because you’re alone or you “choo
se’ to be single this year — there’s a small amount of shame that you are not celebrating the loveable holiday.
You’re forced to watch the happy couples on TV and watch stupid rom-coms while you hide away sulking at the lovey-dovey world around you.
Valentine’s Day has become more about promiscuity and consumerism, rather than the type of love St. Valentine intended all those years ago.
A day that is meant to be about friendship, appreciation and love is all about who can buy the best gift. Every year there’s a different lingerie commercial or a jewelry commercial telling you why you need to buy their products to make your partner feel extra special. The holiday is just an excuse for businesses to upmarket to upmarket their defective products
and make you feel penniless, all to make that special someone feel “extra special’ on that one particular day.
I, for one, refuse to give in to the rampant consumerism. I shall be watching a non-rom-com, eating popcorn, quietly, on my own.
But if anyone wants to hang out, I’m available. And my favorite chocolate is pecan clusters.
They are quite cheap.