Why I Love Valentine’s Day
By Sarah Dubow
Valentine’s Day. Cue the influx of hearts, gigantic teddy bears, and too-sweet candy. Bring on the red and pink hues that blind you as you walk into Wal-Mart. Usher in the gooey poems, gushy cards, and straight-up gross PDA. Soon, you’ll be drowning in love songs, the nauseating smell of roses, and the desperate need to find a boyfriend just so you can say you have a real Valentine. Why on earth would any sane person love this Hallmark holiday? Well, consider me your lifeguard because I’m about to save you from being a cynical, angry, V-day hater.
The thing is, Valentine’s Day for me has never been about hoping the perfect guy will surprise me with a box of sweethearts and a pop-up card. In my family, my mom would always make a big dinner, we’d eat a dessert that we all made together, and then we’d indulge on heart-shaped box of chocolates that was meant to sustain us for a few weeks but really only lasted a few days. We expressed love, caring, and togetherness. (I see you gagging.) The other 364 days of the year that we fought, bickered, and got upset with each other were put on hold for one day. For me, it has never been about expressing romantic love or lust. Instead, Valentine’s Day has always served as a simple reminder to tell my loved ones how much I love and value them in my life.
So, the V-Day cynics out there are probably asking, why not just tell them you love them on another day? Well, February 14th offers me the chance to go over the top. For one day, I can make sure that the people I appreciate in my life – be it friends, family, or dogs – feel special, loved, and valued. Throughout college, I have continued to do this. But honestly, I see the ridiculousness in the Hallmark quality of the holiday. So, I invite my friends to dinner, I throw a party to play fun games, make a sparkly cocktail, watch epically horrible yet amazing love stories (Cinderella Story, The Notebook, Say Anything, Ever After). We have romance-offs, think of crazy pick-up lines, and just have fun being together.
So, I get it. Those who rip up heart-shaped cards, avoid the red and pink section at CVS, and hate Glen Coco’s existence – I see your point. But consider this. When all is said and done, what does hating Valentine’s Day do for you except allow you to feel sorry for yourself when, in reality, you have plenty of people who love you. Stop focusing on securing a boyfriend (or girlfriend) and stop building the holiday up to its Hallmark, love-inducing, cupid-obsessing, money-filled standard. Just enjoy being around people who make you happy. Tell them you appreciate them. Throw a party. Make fun drinks. Joke about the holiday. But above all, make this Valentine’s day your own by setting your own terms for what February 14th means to you. As it is said in Love Actually, “ If you look for it, I’ve got a sneaky feeling you’ll find that love actually is all around.”
And if I still haven’t convinced you, here are some links to cheer you up on V-day.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TL5CSPFzTU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQ9M_sVRKCs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5Otla5157c
Oh, and one last thing. He wants you to love Valentine’s Day, too…
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Valentine’s Day: A Mockery of Love and Romance
By Hillary Mann
I am a girl who believes in love. I think that people’s lives are intertwined, and that they are ultimately led to one another. I believe in happily ever after. Rather than existing as figment of our imaginations, I think that soul-mates exist.
However, I find Valentine’s Day to be repugnant. My despise for Valentine’s Day has nothing to do with my own relationship status or some warped psychological inability to love and trust another person. Rather, I hate what Valentine’s Day implies about our society’s regard for love and romance.
Valentine’s Day is a 24-hour period – from 12:00 AM to 11:59 PM – in which people are expected to drop all responsibilities and forgo daily routines in order to live up to the expected ideals of love, romance, and passion that this day connotes. Valentine’s Day was established as a religious and liturgical celebration of St. Valentine, but has now digressed far from its original purpose and currently serves solely as a superficial reminder for people to express their gratitude and love to others through a commercial spectacle of flowers, greeting cards, candy, chocolate, and jewelry. Worse than the actual superficiality of the gifts themselves is how little thought goes into purchasing said gifts; society, particularly women in this case, fawn over these gifts as though their significant others put hours of thought into coming up with said gifts. In reality, they probably woke up on the morning of February 14th, noticed the date (swearing a few times to themselves because they weren’t budgeting in the costs of Valentine’s Day), drove to the nearest florist and swiped their Visas in return for bouquets of flowers wrapped in cheap plastic wrap. Yet, when we receive these flowers or chocolates or whatever the stereotypical Valentine’s Day gift is, we act as though we were not expecting them and like they are the most heart-felt and original gifts we have ever received. The creativity and originality behind Valentine’s Day gifts has long been forgotten, and we are compelled to give one of the aforementioned, prescribed gifts associated with this particular day.
My objection to Valentine’s Day has little to do with the romance, but has all to do with being required to be romantic on this one day out of the entire year. Are people in this day and age so consumed with work, preoccupied with technology, afraid of emotional vulnerability and expression, that they fail to voice their love regularly for their significant others, family, and friends in their life? Shouldn’t we tell our husbands, wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, and friends that we love them on a regular basis without having a scheduled day of the year to do so? Do we buy into the fact that a greater amount of love and appreciation should be reserved for February 14th and not for the other 364 days of the year? If we are truly emotionally satisfied with the relationships and connections we maintain then why do we need a day demarcated solely to acknowledge them?
This Valentine’s Day, give yourself the gift of expressing your love and gratitude to your loved ones at least once a day for the rest of the year. That gift far exceeds any chocolates or roses you may receive.