Happy Not Valentine’s Day

Valentine’s Day is steeped in history.  The day of romance actually dates back to the 5th century and has traces in both Christian and ancient Roman tradition.  Some of the stories associated with its history include pagan fertility festivals, birds’ mating season, and a priest named Valentine who defied Emperor Claudius II’s ban on marriage for soldiers by continuing to marry young lovers. When Valentine’s actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death.  Although the history dates back to A.D. 270, it wasn’t until the end of the 5th century that February 14 was declared St. Valentine’s Day by Pope Gelasius.  It is not entirely clear when the day officially became associated with love but we do know that written “Valentine’s” began to appear sometime around the 1400’s.  In fact, the oldest existing valentine is a poem written by the Duke of Orleans to his wife during his imprisonment in 1415.  Since then Valentine’s Day has been commercialized to include cards, candy, romantic dinners and even extravagant gifts.  In fact, the celebration now extends beyond traditional lovers to include anyone in your life that you love.  Actually, love is not a prerequisite in the exchange of a Valentine, a deep affection will suffice.  According to the Greeting Card Association (and, yes, there is an entire association dedicated to the greeting card industry…look it up), an estimated one billion Valentine’s Day cards are sent each year with women purchasing approximately 85 percent.  To combat this over-commercialization, people have now begun hosting “Happy Not Valentine’s Day” gatherings under the proposition that they are defying the day of love with an anti-promotional agenda.  This is all well and good but for those disillusioned souls let me clarify something for you, gathering “not to celebrate” something is the same as gathering “to celebrate” something.  It will only be a matter of time before the “not celebrating” becomes just as commercialized as the “celebrating.”  You heard it here first.