Valentine's day... A day named after the Christian martyr St Valentine; the actual history behind Valentines day being a bit cloudy. Was it because Valentine performed secret marriages after emperor Claudius II decided single men make better soldiers and outlawed marriages in Rome, or was it to do with his own secret love, wherein he sent the first valentines card to his secret lover who so happened to also be his jailer's daughter? Either way, Valentines day as a day of love has been called into question too often in recent times, and that is why this post will aim to bring us all back to lurveeeee.
Arguments against Valentine's day being a special day are often as follows:
"Oh, you should treat your partner special every single day of the year!"
or
"It's just another government scheme to squeeze us out of our hard-earned cash"
Whether these statements are true or not, or your stance on them, you cannot deny one thing; and that is that Valentine's day is a day set out from the year, marked to represent and celebrate Love. To refuse to celebrate or acknowledge Valentine's could be likened to refusing to acknowledge Christmas, I mean, don't you spend more money around Christmas time? If you celebrate Christmas as Jesus' birthday, should you not also celebrate every day of the year in accordance to the will of Jesus?! But enough about the Valentine's day scrooges, let's look at some Valentine's day facts...
- 1billion Valentine's cards are exchanged annually (making this the second most popular card-giving occasion. Can you guess which is no.1?)
- You can also celebrate singles awareness day (SAD) on February 14th if you can't find a Valentine
- Historically, young men and women drew names from a bowl to see who would be their Valentine. They would wear this name on their sleeve for one week for all to see. Thus the expression "wearing your heart on your sleeve" was born.
- The tradition of giving chocolate for Valentine's was started by the founder of Cadbury after he gave a heart-shaped box to his wife on the day
- According to an American express report, nearly six million couples are likely to get engaged on Valentine's day (couldn't find UK/Worldwide stats, sorry)
So what do we have then? A day that is so clearly not devoid of all the love that people claim it has lost. Yes, you should treat your partner special everyday, however, it's not everyday that you get to celebrate love in general, so you should use this day to celebrate what you have with that special someone. Do NOT, i repeat DO NOT, listen to your burnt and bitter friends, and I wish you the best Valentine's day ever!!