How many times have you heard some love-sore person talk about how Valentine’s Day was just created by the candy and greeting card companies to make a profit? How many times have you said this yourself? I’ve never been particularly pro-Valentine’s Day myself, as it just seems to be a wanton waste of money so quickly after Christmas and the debt that we all go into during that time. If you are in a relationship, there is a feeling of obligation, and if you are single, there is a feeling that you don’t matter and the only Valentine you’re going to get will be from your grandma. Personally, I’ve always treated Valentine’s Day with a certain sense of indifference.
As soon as the retail stores clean up their Christmas displays, then up goes everything Valentine-related. Every other commercial on television seems to be telling you what to get your special-someone to show them you love them (I hope you don’t need a holiday for them to know that). It’s kind of hard to avoid. If you are like me and don’t like having things constantly pushed in your face, this over-advertisement alone is enough to make you dislike the holiday.
However, the curious part of me always likes to understand things, even if I’m just planning to use that knowledge as an argument against something. So, I looked Valentine’s Day up on Wikipedia, and was rather pleasantly surprised by what I found there. Hate to break it you, folks, but Valentine’s Day was around long before greeting cards even existed, let alone the companies that sell them.
There were actually about fourteen different saints named Valentine in ancient Rome, all martyrs (as most saints were at that time). The name Valentine was popular because it came from the word valens, which variously meant worthy, strong, and powerful. (Side Note: I am kind of falling in love with the name Valentina, and I’m feeling that it may have to make it’s way into the form of a short story.)
According to Wikipedia, the first association between Valentine’s Day and romantic love was made by Chaucer in the Parliament of Fowls in 1382.
For this was on seynt Volantynys day
Whan euery bryd comyth there to chese his make.(For this was Saint Valentine’s Day,
when every bird cometh there to choose his mate.)
Anyone who knows me and my literary tastes should know that I adore Chaucer, especially Parliament of Fowls, as well as The Book of the Duchess and Troilus and Criseyde. So, the fact that Chaucer endorses the romantic aspect of Valentine’s Day is enough to win me over in favor of the holiday.
Shakespeare also mentions Valentine’s Day in one of Ophelia’s speeches in Hamlet (Act IV, Scene 5).
To-morrow is Saint Valentine’s day,
All in the morning betime,
And I a maid at your window,
To be your Valentine.
Then up he rose, and donn’d his clothes,
And dupp’d the chamber-door;
Let in the maid, that out a maid
Never departed more.
I don’t believe that either Chaucer or Shakespeare were paid off by some Medieval or Renaissance Greeting Card Company to make an extra buck (or pence, as the case may be).
So, knowing that the romantic aspect of Saint Valentine’s Day has medieval roots, where does that leave us today? It doesn’t stop us from being buffeted by the over-commercialization of the modern holiday. In fact, it may not have any effect on you at all. For me, it made me stop and think, and reflect a little on what Valentine’s Day has the potential to be.
This Valentine’s Day, I 
encourage all of you to celebrate in your own way, not the way that the media and various corporations tell you to. Take this as an opportunity to break the routine of your current relationship and do something new to express that bond you share. Get drinks with your other single friends and laugh over past exes and future loves. Ask your Crush out for coffee and see where things go. Celebrate those relationships around you that give you hope for the future.
