Is Valentine’s Day Necessary?
February 17, 2020
Valentine’s day, the day where all you see is couples in love showing that love with giant teddy bears and a box of chocolate. It seems like this holiday has been around for forever, but how long has it really been here? And perhaps the holiday may be a little bit outdated.
Throughout our childhood, we have spent money and time buying valentine cards and candies to give to our class, to now buying them for our partners as a token of our love and gratitude. Is this really necessary though? Why do we find it so important to show our love with something so bland and artificial as candy? To find this out, I had to research the beginning of this holiday to find out when and why it was even made. The origin of this holiday is from the Roman festival Lupercalia, which was celebrated in mid-February. The reason for this was to celebrate the welcoming of spring and often paired women with men from a lottery. This celebration ended in the 5th century by pope Gelasius who replaced Lupercalia with the st valentines, this day was to celebrate romance and love. What we call now as valentines appeared in the 1500s and by the end of the 1700s formal valentines were being printed for sale. In these valentines, there was a god called cupid depicted on them.
Cupid was the Roman god of love and emotion. Since mating was in early spring they had also used birds as a symbol of renewal. It seems this holiday has been popular everywhere, everywhere we know from country to country celebrates this holiday. Growing up it was a part of us and our childhood. But does it even matter much anymore? Not exactly but that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the holiday. For most, it is just time taken out to appreciate the loved ones you have and realize how thankful you are for them. Even if you don’t have a valentine your friends can be yours. It doesn’t have to be a lover but someone who you know will be there by your side every step of the way. Perhaps the holiday is outdated but that doesn’t mean we can’t change its meaning and make it better for our society today.