Oh Valentine's Day, you are most definitely the most divided holiday of all. Some wait for you for days while others wish they could skip you. Why is that? Well you have put expectations in people's heads like nothing else has before.
Let's go back to its real origins. According to one of my best friends, Wikipedia, Valentine's Day comes from:
"a liturgical celebration of one or more early Christian saints named Valentinus. The most popular martyrology associated with Saint Valentine was that he was imprisoned for performing weddings for soldiers who were forbidden to marry and for ministering to Christians, who were persecuted under the Roman Empire;
during his imprisonment, he is said to have healed the daughter of his
jailer Asterius. Legend states that before his execution he wrote her a
letter "from your Valentine" as a farewell."
Well that's good to know, I should remind my boyfriend that we are both Jewish and celebrating a holiday that was originally Christian. But why does no one really knows the actual origin of Valentine's Day? People even call it Hallmark Day! Well because it has become one of the most commercial holidays of all times, that's why. The average spent on Valentine's day paraphernalia is 13.9 billion dollars! Now it is sad to realize that some of these dollars are spent by 14% of women who send themselves flowers! 53% of women even said that they would end their relationship if they didn't get anything on that "special day".
Now this is getting out of control from the consumer's perspective. But let's talk about the companies' view on that. They would be dumb not to take advantage of men trying to impress, or I should say keep, their women by selling them stuff.
As a foreigner though I have to say that the US takes Valentine's Day to a whole new level. We all know that the main purpose is to celebrate the relationship you have with your significant other. So when, during my first American Valentine's Day, I got a handmade card and chocolate from one of my girlfriends, you can imagine how surprised I was. Yes friends, in the US, Valentine's Day is apparently also to celebrate friends and family members (Ok not gonna lie, I really enjoy this aspect =D).
So of course just like anybody else I know that Valentine's Day is a commercial holiday but I'd be lying if I said that I didn't enjoy gaining a few pounds from the instagrammed chocolate covered strawberries I got and the dinner I was taken out to. But I am still a "five year old American", so if I had given my parents chocolate, they would have probably made fun of me.
source: http://www.statisticbrain.com/valentines-day-statistics/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentine%27s_Day
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