Thursday, February 14, 2013

Valentine's Day


When I am asked what Valentine's Day means the first thing that comes to mind is $$$. A normal bouquet of roses that normally would be $40 are now $100. I don't get it. Why spend $100 on something that will die in a couple of days? And then if you have school age kids you have those lovely parties in school. Not that they are super expensive but its just another thing you have to spend money on.
I started looking around on the web to find out what this day really meant. Here is what I found, courtesy of wikipedia.com:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentine's_Day
Saint Valentine's Day, commonly known as Valentine's Day,[1][2][3] or the Feast of Saint Valentine,[4] is observed on February 14 each year. It is celebrated in many countries around the world, although it remains a working day in most of them.[3]
St. Valentine's Day began as 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 "from your Valentine" as a farewell to her.[5][6] Today, Saint Valentine's Day is an official feast day in the Anglican Communion,[7] as well as in the Lutheran Church.[8] The Eastern Orthodox Church also celebrates Saint Valentine's Day, albeit on July 6th and July 30th, the former date in honor of the Roman presbyterSaint Valentine, and the latter date in honor of Hieromartyr Valentine, the Bishop of Interamna (modern Terni).[9][10]
The day was first associated with romantic love in the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer in the High Middle Ages, when the tradition of courtly love flourished. By the 15th century, it had evolved into an occasion in which lovers expressed their love for each other by presenting flowers, offering confectionery, and sending greeting cards (known as "valentines").[1][3] Valentine's Day symbols that are used today include the heart-shaped outline, doves, and the figure of the winged Cupid. Since the 19th century, handwritten valentines have given way to mass-produced greeting cards.[11]
Did you see in there where we should spend ridiculous amounts of money on crap we don't need? Flowers, cards, romantic meals, and chocolates should be part of a relationship throughout the year, not just on one day. You want to spend money on this day? Buy something for your significant other that they want or could use. Just a thought.



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