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Valentine's Day
RSS FeedValentine's Day: Commercial hype or romantic opportunity?
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| Commercial | 62% | 200 votes | Total: 324 votes | |
| Romantic | 38% | 124 votes |
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Add to FavoritesValentines day was specifically invented to sell greeting cards. It's all one big commercial venture started by people who essentially decided that there should be a get out of divorce free card for those men who couldn't bring themselves to treat their wives to a little romance for the rest of the year.
I am strongly and vehemently anti-valentine. I have become so utterly sick of the hype and commercialism that I could happily see it abolished.
It's the one day of the year when even the most mediocre of restaurants will be booked to capacity and roses sell for at least four to five times their usual cost. Everyone will hand out heart shaped boxes of chocolate, and children who are too young to even understand romance let alone experience It - will exchange dozens of cards in little classroom celebrations.
Of the actual Catholic saint, St. Valentine whose feast day is February 14, absolutely nothing is known. The day itself is also thought to be a feast day assigned to more than one saint named Valentine. Even by 496 BC nothing could be found to give any insight into either his life or how he became known as a saint. This is without even stopping to consider that "the" saint Valentine is probably several different men named Valentine recognized all on the same day.
Young children love everybody and I was no different. Here was the one day when you were supposed to be all mushy. Then I wasn't so young and not so interested in giving the same cards indiscriminately to both the boys and the girls, the kids I liked and the kids I didn't.
As I got older I hated nothing more than to sit down and spend all that time filling out card after card for all my classmates asking them to be my valentine. Some of these kids I barely knew, others I disliked but every year there was this obligation to fill out card after card. Doing cards for only the kids you liked was not an option, feelings would be hurt otherwise. Not doing them at all was out of the question and so I would sit.
I have never been able to understand why such a personal and private adult concept as romance would be granted the status of a pseudo-holiday nor why it would be so important that children be drawn into it. Are people really so incapable of impressing each other romantically that we need a special day for it?
I have lost track of the number of couples who have fought long and bitterly simply because one partner failed to get a big enough gift or make reservations at a nice enough restaurant. Frankly if my partner is so shallow that large amounts of money are required on a day not of my choosing in a way not of my choosing at a time not of my choosing, then they are someone I'm probably better off without.
What started off as a concept to increase greeting card sales has become a huge multi-billion dollar business and everyone is in on it. Hotels are booked solid, often months in advance all at full price. Restaurants plan special menus, charge far more than their usual rates and are almost always booked solid. Any and every place that has "date night" potential will be geared up and ready to profit on all these couples falling over themselves to try and be captain romance for one short night. And the cards.. children and adults alike will line up to buy the cutest or the funniest or the mushiest cards they can find.
Frankly I'd rather eat popcorn in front of the tv tonight. We can watch re-runs of our favourite show or drool over the food network. We can get the chores done early and maybe play a board game with the kids. We can do the things that a couple in love does when they have the calm and security of a deeper relationship than the cards and candy you have to buy.
I'll take my wife out next week when she can know beyond all shadow of a doubt that we are in that restaurant because I love her. The week after that we'll go to the theater because I want to be with her and spend time with her. And the week after that I'll get those roses and present them with real romance in mind and not just as a way to keep score in the consumerism game.
Learn more about this author, Sparx.
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Romantic
It's February and everywhere you go you are being bombarded with red hearts, pink teddy bears and paper cupids shooting arrows. They have become the symbols to remind us, just in case it slipped our minds, Valentine's Day is coming. No chance of that ever happening, right? Grocery stores, gas stations, drug stores, and even my neighborhood cleaners are now in on it.
I doubt if anyone still even remembers that this all started in Rome as a result of a clergyman named Valentine who was executed for secretly marrying military personnel against the Emperor's orders. The Emperor believed that marriage made the soldiers weak in battle (much like the NFL or NBA feel about a player consummating with their wives or girlfriends before a big game-talk about an archaic rule). Later, in A.D. 496, Pope Gelasius set aside February 14th as the Christian holiday to honor this man of the cloth for his bravery, and he became the patron saint for lovers. Now centuries later it has become known as the day to express and exchange love messages. Creating and marketing the first valentine card was first credited to Esther Howland, of Massachusetts, back in the 1840's, which she turned into a lucrative home-based business, (grossing a whopping $100k annually), and then sold to George C. Whitney, who later was responsible for adding the verse to the cards.
Today the American Greetings Corporation, the largest manufacturer of greeting cards, boast $1.8billion in annual sales of which 25% or, approximately 190 million of those are for Valentine's Day.-not including the million or so exchanged among children at school. And women may be the biggest purchasers of Valentine's cards, but men account for 15% of those sales, and word is out, that number is rising. According to the Greeting Card Association, 9 out of 10 people look forward to getting a valentine's card, so men may not be buying them but they sure are expecting to receive one. That makes Valentine's Day the most popular day for sending and receiving cards, second to Christmas. And it's celebrated by just as many people and businesses.
Yes, Millions of dollars are being made and exchanged in the name of love on this day. According to the Diamond Information Center, 2.3 million couples get engaged annually and 10% of those happen on valentine's day. In diamond dollars that's 230 thousand times two people, celebrating Valentine's Day (Bling! Bling!). More flowers, (roses of course) and $14.9 billion worth of chocolate (36 million in heart-shaped boxes) are sold and sent on that day as well. That's a chocolate lover or confectioner's dream day. Commercialism? Hype? Who cares! If you are a smart business owner you can't help but get romantic about making that kind of money, right?
But the real question is, is it more commercial hype than romantic opportunity these days? Hands down it is NOT! It is definitely more romantic opportunity. What other holiday is there that help you exhibit your sincere love to your mate than this one? And on what holiday is romance the only reason for the season? What if it wasn't hyped up? Do you really think that most men (and some women) would even remember to send a sentiment or express a heartfelt emotion to you? Let alone purposely prepare something special for the occasion? Probably not.
How readily available do you think a dozen of roses, a heart-shaped box of chocolates, or that perfectly heart shaped diamond necklace would be on such short notice if companies hadn't got in on the hype? Certainly couldn't stop at the local PDQ and find any there. Nor would there be just the right bouquet with a miniature heart shaped balloon already attached at your local grocer. How bout stopping at the local DQ last minute and finding just the right dessert to end that special dinner you didn't have time to cook especially for the occasion? Well, I say we ought to be grateful for the hype and embrace the romantic opportunity of the day. No time like the present will there be a better one. No other holiday is rallying around the roses. And believe me, women like to get roses and if it wasn't for this day some would never.
It is a without a doubt a very lucrative day for some, and certainly it is hyped to the max by others, but you can't deny the fact that no better opportunity presents itself quite like Valentine's Day for love and romance. Yeah, you can take your girl up in an air balloon on any day and it's considered romantic, but if you took her up on Valentine's Day it would be romantic to the Nth power. She and her envying girlfriends will be talking about it for days all year. Now how many Christmas presents have that kind of staying power? How bout a candlelight dinner? Say, you cook your girl one of those messes of a meal you call special just because you cooked it. On any day other than Valentine's Day, it just wouldn't have the same affect. (it may have quite the opposite-it could remind her how wonderful it would be to have a man that cooks-and that really is an asset to today's working women, you know) But on this day she would just smile and think you were the best; you and your mess. She would grin and bear just about anything on this day in the name of love. She dare not hurt your feelings by saying something negative about whatever you decide to do for her out of love on this day. In fact, you could take this romantic opportunity to a whole nother level. Let's say you've been a jerk all year, just hold out till Valentine's Day and do something for her in the name of the day, (it has to be kind of spectacular -depending on how big a jerk you were) and you're off the hook (so try not to mess it up again-Valentine's Day comes only once a year-the rest of the year the hype wont be there to help). And even if you are not a jerk, and really are the romantic type, the hype of this day gives you one more day (and another reason) for all that affection and mush you dish out all year on your loved ones.
The way I see it, we should all get in on the hype because it all works out to our advantage anyway. That is, anything for love.
Learn more about this author, Elle D.
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