Keeping True to Love

Could you imagine waking up on a Valentine’s Day morning without flowers or chocolate? I bet not.

To truly understand the real meaning of Valentine’s Day, perhaps let’s go back into history. Valentine’s Day was originally celebrated in the Fifth Century when Pope Gelasius declared February 14 as the official St. Valentine’s Day, which he named after St. Valentine. This was because in ancient times, Emperor Claudius II thought that single men were better soldiers than men with families, so he banned marriage. St. Valentine then realized this injustice and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. Because of these actions, Emperor Claudius II had him killed. Since then, Valentine’s Day is celebrated in memory of St. Valentine’s huge sacrifice for the sake of love.

Nowadays people expect lovely surprises on Valentine’s Day. Social media lights up with posts showing off beautiful roses, expensive jewelry and gifts and people retweeting about their fancy plans for the “romantic” day. The occasion puts pressure on couples to buy gifts for each other and spend the day together on expensive outings. Such actions on the day shows how the ancient meaning of Valentine’s Day has since changed. What was once a festive time of year to celebrate love has been transformed into a day of gift giving and in some cases the lack of overwhelming affection.

Essentially, because of the commercialized flurry and last-minute shopping imposed by this day, modern society has taken a different approach to the “day of love.” In my opinion Valentine’s Day has become a day of showing off and determining the depth of ones partner’s pockets according to the size of the bouquet of roses they buy for their other half, which in most cases is only to be flaunted on social media.

Nowadays, many couples expect huge gestures and gifts on this day and some may even get upset when they don’t receive a gift. In my opinion, we need to get back to basics and recapture the true meaning of “love.”

CA