Apparently around 150 million Valentine’s Day cards are exchanged annually, making it the second most popular card-sending holiday after Christmas.
On top of that Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites are flooded with people talking about Valentine’s Day. (I say talking about Valentine’s Day as opposed to spreading love about Valentine’s Day because today #Relationshipsendbecause is trending more on Twitter than #HappyValentinesDay which just goes to show how positive and optimistic our social networking friends are.) However, everyone is talking about it, whether that is positively or negatively. St. Valentines Day is the day when people show their affection for another person by sending anonymous cards, flowers or chocolates….true?
Well, in my original plan for this blog post the answer was no because I was going to write a post about how commercialised it was and about how it is just a scam to make money…I mean, apporximately £1.3 billion is spent each year in the UK on the holiday.
But…as I researched deeper into the topic and spent the day reading messages people had written on Facebook, oh and not to mention, eating the sweeties my flatmate had bought us all for Valentines Day…I kind of changed my mind about the holiday.
Yeah, shops commercialise on it, like they do every single holiday but there does seem to be more to Valentines Day. It is a day where people appreciate who they have, whether it is the singletons celebrating the fact that they only need the friendships they already have, those who finally have a good excuse to tell that one person how they feel about them, or those who are already in those relationships that need a day to be celebrated. It is a day where people can feel good or positive about things, the one day where people can rid the embarressment surrounding the word love…it’s a good day.Now, what changed my mind? It was the videos and posts I watched and read as I researched. Some people will do absolutely anything to tell the person they love, that they love them the most. Here is some of the things I have seen today…
1. A man called Luke wanted to propose to his girlfriend Shelly but couldn’t decide where would be the right location….here is what he did….
2. An article written by the Morning Post…
http://www.themorningnews.org/article/how-to-say-i-love-you
3. How to say ‘I love you’ in 100 different languages.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5f1Y3CWTc0
….etc, etc, etc…
The internet is FULL of things like this. And it all makes you forget about how ridiculous it is to have one day out of 365 (or 366) set aside to tell the person you love that you love them, because really that is something you should be doing everyday.
Who cares about the industry making money out of it, that’s not what it is all about really is it now…
Photography: danielmoyle http://www.flickr.com/photos/danmoyle/
This is a really well written article. At first I felt like valentines day was a way for companies to make money. But since I didn’t go out at all yesterday and it was still a really special day, I agree, it’s about showing people you care. Your blog has just reinforced my changed opinion. And I’m even mentioned in it too!