Our view: Valentine’s Day or Hallmark holiday?

Valentine’s Day – The day for couples to express/share their love in public and celebrate how long they have been together. It makes some people feel happy or blissful, while it makes others feel like they are alone or just supposed to go out to show people that they are doing something.

Surprisingly, Valentine’s Day wasn’t always about showing everyone up with the fanciest gifts and most expensive chocolates.

The whole tradition is a bit of a mystery, but started out with a priest named Valentine who died a martyr for love. The Catholic church recognized him as a saint, hence the original title of the holiday, St. Valentine’s Day.

There are several theories about what really happened to him. Some believe he saved a lot of Christians from being tortured and killed and fell in love with the daughter of a jailer. The daughter, apparently, visited him while he was imprisoned, so he sent letters to her signing with, “From your Valentine”, which is a traditional phrase that we still use today.

Others, according to History.com, think Valentine was a priest who tried to overrule the king, who forced laws that men had to wait until they were a certain age to get married. Valentine thought that men should be allowed to marry young if they wanted to, so he helped marry young lovers against the law and was put to death because he disobeyed the king.

So from those perspectives, Valentine’s Day seems like a reasonable day to celebrate marriage and admiring a loved one, but why must people spend a fortune to prove their love to someone?

Hallmark makes a lot of money on Valentine’s Day because they are good at campaigning to all audiences, and can market their products through relationships. Couples are then influenced to buy their significant other a gift of some sort whether that be chocolate, flowers, or jewelry.

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