Valentines day! Ugh. Valentines day has gone the way of Christmas. It has become another marketing venture that is often about what to buy and not how do I express my genuine love and affection for that special someone in your life. This article notes how this
all began. Of course, we know what has become of the day.
About.com By Pauline Wallin, Ph.D.
The perfect card, the perfect gift, the perfect date . . . Isn’t there enough pressure in relationships without having to live up to some romantic ideal on Valentine’s Day?
This is not how the celebration of February 14 started out. Its origins stem from fertility festivals of ancient Rome, when young women were not given candy or flowers. They were whipped with strips of animal hide because they believed that this would make them more fertile. A couple of centuries later, Christians celebrated a priest named Valentine, who secretly performed marriage ceremonies for soldiers when the emperor had forbidden it. By the 1400’s Valentine’s Day was firmly established in England, but the emphasis was on little rituals, such as drawing names out of a bowl, to discover the identity of one’s true love.
In recent decades Valentine’s Day has become increasingly commercialized. TV and magazine ads depict models with perfect bodies and perfect teeth giving each other chocolates, jewelry and back rubs. The message is: “Your love is measured by what you buy.”
