Valentine’s Day

Every year around this time there’s candy themed objects of hearts & color scheme of red & pink covering the land. Always dividing people into categories that may or may not matter. Couples & singles for love or not. Valentines Day these days become about celebrating the love between people & bringing business to compares who promote this holiday.

The history of Valentines Day has many beginnings. During the month of February it has been celebrated for love and romance. Valentines Day has dated back to traditions in both Cristian and Ancient Rome. Back in the day the Catholic Church had identified the minimum of three people who were considered martyrs. One of whom was named Valentine.

According to history Emperor Claudius II thought that single men would be better soldiers if they were single & alone. No family or person to think about while in service. Knowing this, Valentine decided how unhealthy the practice was & continued to perform marriages in disgression. Claudius found out & demanded that valentine be put to death in order to prevent marriages from forming.

Other stories relating to such talks of many people in the era whom were named valentine performed similar acts against Claudius in order to find love & promote the growth of families due to Claudius not having the divine right to prevent such things.

Some believe that Valentine’s Day was created due to Pagan beliefs. Animals were sacrificed to the Roman god of agriculture in order to maintain & obtain healthy crops & clean water for the land as well as anointed woman so they will be potential candidates for a suitable bachelor. The holiday wasn’t called Valentine’s Day but Lupercalia.

After the rise of Christianity it was considered un-Christian to perform the ceremonies in which to “find a valentine”. After the 5th century a pope decided to call the day Valentine’s Day due to the mating season for animals like birds. The British had elaborated the holiday by sending the first “valentine” & thus a trend expanded & soon became what it is today.

The day has become a mass production of physical objects to be gifted to others for the validation of one’s intentions. Ranging from a simple chocolate to jewelry. Every year traditions are formed & companies like hallmark obtains big profit due to something as simple as a Valentine’s Day Card. With the upbringing of technology the idea of physical objects has not just declined but shifted to technological gestures like ecards. Some traditions stay the same but others become more progressive.

Valentine’s Day is a very emotional holiday. From the stress of finding a mate in order to take advantage of such traditions of chocolate and card giving while exploiting businesses of their valentine discounts to facing the propaganda of it all as a single person while feeling pressured to not be alone around the time.

Whilst it’s perfectly valid to partake in such traditions, imagine the biases that come from such traditions. The idea that being single becomes a negative feature during this time & the concept of FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) enters the minds of those affected negatively by the holiday.

Nowadays, the holiday has been reformed into many avenues mainly being the act of gift giving in forms of a romantic gesture. In hindsight, not celebrating in a holiday can result in saving on such currencies & customs. Groups are formed to lift others spirits in times where the “single life” is questioned. Though taking advantage of some discounts are good Valentine’s Day is just merely a regular day like every other.