My thoughts on Valentine's Day

First, let’s start with the origin of Valentine’s Day.

“The Romans celebrated the feast of Lupercalia. Emperor Claudius II executed two men — both named Valentine — on February 14 of different years in the third century. Their martyrdom was honored by the Catholic Church with the celebration of St. Valentine's Day.”

This is the origin of Valentine’s Day summed up very briefly. Nowadays, Valentine’s Day is known as the day of love. People all around the world celebrate this day regardless of race and religion. We often see people buying flowers or chocolates for their significant others and even going on dates. As the name suggests, people would also send their partners greeting notes also known as “Valentines”. All this effort gone into one day of the year just to show your love, shouldn’t we be spreading love on normal days too? Why should we dedicate everything into one day alone?

If we truly cared for those around us, we shouldn’t only buy flowers, chocolates or write sweet notes on this day. Instead, it should be all year round. All these mass produced products are simply means to allow businesses to profit off of this day. For instance, an estimated 24 billion dollars was expected to be spent on Valentine’s Day this year in the United States alone. For reference, that is about 3 times the human population. With less fortunate people who can’t even afford clean and safe drinking water, shouldn’t we put our efforts elsewhere? Not to mention the amount of waste the day creates. With chocolate wrappers and flowers that wilt within a week, is all of this really necessary? Are people being pressured into spending money on these material objects in the name of capitalism?

As controversial as my opinion may be, I would like to know your thoughts on the matter. Leave a comment in the comments section to let me know your opinion on Valentines’ Day!

Jolyn