Over-rated Much?
It is unclear exactly who and what started Valentine’s Day a long time ago and why it was so convincing to the society at the time. It is said there was a man who went by Saint Valentine. He has many stories to his name, one claims he continued to marry couples even after the Roman rule was not allowing it due to battle; another idea is he actually sent the first Valentine while he was in jail. He fell in love with women and before he died he wrote her a love letter and signed it “From your Valentine”. Although there are many options to decide what truly happened, still, none of the stories show significance.
For a holiday, Valentines Day originated in Britain around the seventeenth century, and was not brought to the Untied States until mid seventeenth century. However, the very first valentines were said to have been handed out as early as the fourteenth century. In 1840, Esther A. Howland was the first to produce Valentine cards by the mass in the Untied States. Today, over one billion cards are sent out in relation to Valentines Day each year comparable to the three billion Christmas cards. 85% of these valentine cards are sent out by women.
Women may be sending out words of encouragement and love but who’s buying all those over priced gifts? Men are responsible for proclaiming their love through flowers, chocolate, and jewelry. 3% of the population even buys their pets gifts! Statistics claim that 110 million roses are bought by men on Valentines Day! While we sit around and watch commercials for starving children and complain about paying too much for gas, we spent millions of dollars just to impress the society around us watching to judge our love for each other based on how much we spend.
If you look up Valentine in the Webster Dictionary you will read three different definitions: a sweetheart chosen or complimented on Valentine’s Day, a gift or greeting sent or given especially to a sweetheart on Valentine’s Day, and something expressing uncritical praise or affection. Don’t we have anniversaries for a definition like that?
There are many noticeable symbols of valentines like hearts, the colors red and pink, roses, and words such as love, mine, adore, sweet, and forever. These words are printed on cards, balloons, chocolates, jewelry, teddy bears, and so much more. But for what? Must we have to include a couple’s holiday into our budget? It is amazing to look at the importance our society has placed on having a significant other.
So why has Valentines Day become so important in our past and present societies? Is it really necessary to have one specific day to show affection to a loved one while spending a large sum of money? Taking a survey is the only way to understand why we are all so willing to celebrate and spend money on this holiday, only the consumer knows. We do not need books, articles and journals to be published for this research, just take a trip to the stores in February. Not only does every store window, store shelf, store advertisements and coupon books let you know what time of the year it is whether it is pointing out you are lonely or simply about to go broke the radio plays into it as well. There is no way of going about avoiding this ridiculous holiday. As far as overlooking this past year, I would have come to the conclusion that Valentines day is not only just over priced, but also overrated and just another excuse used for selfish women to get angry at the man they love.
It is unclear exactly who and what started Valentine’s Day a long time ago and why it was so convincing to the society at the time. It is said there was a man who went by Saint Valentine. He has many stories to his name, one claims he continued to marry couples even after the Roman rule was not allowing it due to battle; another idea is he actually sent the first Valentine while he was in jail. He fell in love with women and before he died he wrote her a love letter and signed it “From your Valentine”. Although there are many options to decide what truly happened, still, none of the stories show significance.
For a holiday, Valentines Day originated in Britain around the seventeenth century, and was not brought to the Untied States until mid seventeenth century. However, the very first valentines were said to have been handed out as early as the fourteenth century. In 1840, Esther A. Howland was the first to produce Valentine cards by the mass in the Untied States. Today, over one billion cards are sent out in relation to Valentines Day each year comparable to the three billion Christmas cards. 85% of these valentine cards are sent out by women.
Women may be sending out words of encouragement and love but who’s buying all those over priced gifts? Men are responsible for proclaiming their love through flowers, chocolate, and jewelry. 3% of the population even buys their pets gifts! Statistics claim that 110 million roses are bought by men on Valentines Day! While we sit around and watch commercials for starving children and complain about paying too much for gas, we spent millions of dollars just to impress the society around us watching to judge our love for each other based on how much we spend.
If you look up Valentine in the Webster Dictionary you will read three different definitions: a sweetheart chosen or complimented on Valentine’s Day, a gift or greeting sent or given especially to a sweetheart on Valentine’s Day, and something expressing uncritical praise or affection. Don’t we have anniversaries for a definition like that?
There are many noticeable symbols of valentines like hearts, the colors red and pink, roses, and words such as love, mine, adore, sweet, and forever. These words are printed on cards, balloons, chocolates, jewelry, teddy bears, and so much more. But for what? Must we have to include a couple’s holiday into our budget? It is amazing to look at the importance our society has placed on having a significant other.
So why has Valentines Day become so important in our past and present societies? Is it really necessary to have one specific day to show affection to a loved one while spending a large sum of money? Taking a survey is the only way to understand why we are all so willing to celebrate and spend money on this holiday, only the consumer knows. We do not need books, articles and journals to be published for this research, just take a trip to the stores in February. Not only does every store window, store shelf, store advertisements and coupon books let you know what time of the year it is whether it is pointing out you are lonely or simply about to go broke the radio plays into it as well. There is no way of going about avoiding this ridiculous holiday. As far as overlooking this past year, I would have come to the conclusion that Valentines day is not only just over priced, but also overrated and just another excuse used for selfish women to get angry at the man they love.
However, just so everyone is aware, i did not write this as a single, bitter, uptight woman just wallowing in my own self -pity; my boyfriend also agrees.
