Is Valentine’s Day becoming too commercialized?
It’s only days away from Feb. 14, arguably the most romantic day of the year. For many of us, this is the day we get to show our “special someone” just how much we love them. For greeting card companies and florists, it’s the day their sales go through the roof. Judging by the frenzy we create trying to find the perfect gift and make reservations at the perfect restaurant, I think it’s safe to say that Valentine’s Day has seen some pretty drastic developments.
The roots of Valentine’s Day go all the way back to an Ancient Roman fertility festival called Lupercalia. Then, in order to Christianize the festival, the Christian Church chose mid February to celebrate their own “St. Valentine’s Day,” named after a martyr. But, who is this St. Valentine?
According to the Church, there was more than one St. Valentine in history. The first was executed for illegally performing marriages, after Emperor Claudius II outlawed marriage, believing that single men made better soldiers. Another story suggests that an imprisoned Valentine sent the first Valentine love letter to a young woman who used to come visit him in jail. Despite all this, it wasn’t until the 1300s that the holiday became definitively associated with love.
Since then, we have seen a multitude of developments in this amorous holiday, all of which have led to the colourful, commercial Valentine’s Day we’ve come to know. But is Valentine’s Day too commercial? Has it become all about chocolate sales and Hallmark cards?
Take this list as an example. Every year, Amazon.ca compiles a list of the 20 most romantic cities in Canada, based on data from the previous year. The highest ranked cities will be those who had the most online purchases of things like romantic movies, Michael Bublé CDs and relationship books. This year, Guelph came in at number eight. Now that’s all fine and dandy, but don’t you find it sad that we are now judging romance based on movie and chocolate sales?
According to the National Retail Survey in the US, men spend an average of $135.35, while women spend $72.28 on their partner every Valentine’s Day. It has also been shown that over 198 million roses are produced for the occasion, 190 million greeting cards are sent, and condom sales increase between 10 per cent and 20 per cent during that week.
And we place this expectation on children from a very young age. Every year, from the time I turned four, I would bring Valentine’s Day cards and chocolate for all the students in my class. It was simply expected that everyone would take part in a Valentine exchange. Because of this, school-aged children exchange hundreds of millions of Valentine’s Day cards every year.
It is becoming more and more evident that we live in a sales-driven society. But is all of this “stuff” taking the romance out of Valentine’s Day? Why do we automatically associate love with gifts, chocolate, and flowers?
Who says we need a special holiday to be romantic? This year, I challenge each of you to tell the people in your life just how much they mean to you, everyday. But, if you wanted to give them a box of chocolates on Saturday, I’m sure it wouldn’t hurt.