14 February is the date known by everyone in the countries which celebrate the day. It is virtually impossible to be unaware that the day is Valentine’s Day. How can anyone forget the day if it is advertised on TV, radio, the Internet and any other media since the end of Christmas? It means almost two months of commercials, advertisements, and shop windows full of Cupids, hearts, flowers and actors or models pretending they are in love. All this starts exactly after Christmas, what means that only when we get rid of Santa Claus, reindeer and beautifully packed presents, we are exposed to different kind of manipulation – Valentine manipulation. Seeing all this pictures and happy lovers who have just received gorgeous bouquet of flowers, you are practically forced to do the same to your girlfriend. Because if you will not, you will be automatically accused of not being involved in the relationship or of being a heartless bastard.
Why is it so? Why this day has become so much commercialised? Do we really need hours of commercials depicting enjoyed lovers to honour our feelings? Spending money on that day is just the obvious. We are no longer expected to make something on our own, to prepare a dinner or make a Valentine card. And by make I mean ‘make’ not ‘buy’. Just in the United Kingdom, half of the population spend around 1.3 billion pounds every year on typical Valentine gifts like cards, chocolates or flowers. It has been once estimated that 25 million cards are sent in the country on that day. In fact, around the world, Valentine cards rank second only to Christmas in number of greeting cards sent.
It all were beautiful and colourful but why do not we spend this day just honouring our affection, without all this ‘musts’? Valentine’s Day is loved by millions of people, however, many complain about it being too much involved with business rather than true appreciation of love. The commercial part of the day came to us from the United States where the practice of exchanging cards was extended to all manner of Valentine’s gifts.
Many argue that Valentine’s Day should come back to its earlier form, the form of early nineteenth century England, when cards were hand-made, there were no Cupids, no arrows and nothing of the commercial part. It is sad that the day actually changed so much that now it is more concerned with business that with true feelings. Nevertheless, there is always a solution. All we need to do is to celebrate the day individually and focus on the person we love instead of becoming involved in this profitable part of the day. Just be together on that day and do not forget about those who love you.