Every Day Is A Day To Love
So Valentine’s Day is almost upon us. For those of us with a significant other, it’s a day of romance, expectations, and pure love. Isn’t that what the advertisers tell us? That our true love will bring us gifts of chocolate, gold, diamonds, and pleasure beyond imaginable. Advertisers know how to sell and they do a very good job of it. For those of us without a significant other, it’s a day of let’s get this day over I have no one. Advertisers know how to make us feel that way too. I’d like to talk about both of these, and my opinion of them if you are willing to listen.
According to National Public Radio,Inc, this is how Valentines Day began…
The Romans, who love to celebrate just about everything and every god, celebrated the feast of Lupercalia from February 13 — 15 th. In this feast, the men apparently sacrificed a goat and a dog, they then took the hides from the animals and whipped women with the hides of the animals they had just slain.
These Roman supposed romantics”were drunk and naked,” says Noel Lenski, a historian at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Believe it or not these poor young women would actually line up for the men to hit them, Lenski says. They believed this would make them fertile. (Now that had to be some pretty good advertising right?)
To make matters even worse. This disgusting brutal event included a matchmaking lottery, in which young men drew the names of women from a jar (ancient key club). The couple would be together for duration of the festival. perhaps even longer, if they ended up liking each other.
You might ask how then did the Romans end up being the ones who gave the name of love to a day? Rome always had an emperor and there was one named Emperor Claudius II. He executed two men — both named Valentine — on Feb. 14 in the 3rd century AD. They were martyred of different years in the 3rd century A.D. Their martyrdom was honored by the Catholic Church with the celebration of St. Valentine’s Day.
The Normans celebrated Galatin’s Day right around the same time as Valentines Day. Galatin meant “lover of women.”
Years passed and believe it or not, the holiday grew sweeter. Chaucer and Shakespeare romanticized it in their work gaining popularity throughout Britain and the rest of Europe. Valentine’s Day cards were handmade paper cards in the Middle Ages.
As tradition repeated itself it came to the new world. As the industrial revolution appeared so did factory made cards right around the 19th century. You have all heard of Hallmark? Great advertising through them! This holiday is big business, the market research firm IBIS World says, Valentine’s Day sales reached $17.6 billion last year; this year’s sales are expected to total $18.6 billion.
So really Valentine’s Day is a very commercialized holiday. Card companies want you to buy cards, chocolate companies want you to buy their chocolate, and jewelry companies, (and almost every woman I know), want you to buy jewelry. My son would say, “It is a Potsy scam.”
So here’s my opinion, for what is worth. If you have a significant other, enjoy the day. Make it about love and not the commercial side of it. If your loved one gets you a gift no matter what it is, be thankful for it. After all, they actually took the time to go out and get it for you. So many times in our lives we get expectations in our heads and expect things that never may happen. We then lose that special moment because of our inaccurate fantasies that we may have stolen from a movie or novel. We are crushed because what we thought would happen didn’t , and the other person has no idea that they let you down because they tried hard to make it special. Live in the moment not the fantasy and treasure whatever it is that they did for you to show you how much you mean to them.
If you don’t have a significant other, enjoy the day anyway! Give something special to someone who needs it just because. Don’t expect anything in return. And if someone does something special for you thank them and smile. It really is all about love. Love really does make the world go around. The more you show it the more it grows and the happier everyone is.
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