Valentine’s Day is simply a made up holiday that is an excuse to receive gifts and chocolate. Society says that you should shower your partner with gifts and show them you love them, but since when was love associated with gift giving. This is one of the many problem with society. Holidays that are supposed to be about love get altered into being about getting gifts and spending an excessive amount of money on a fancy dinner. If Valentine’s Day is a holiday about showing people how much you love them, then shouldn’t every day be Valentine’s Day? There shouldn’t be a specific day of the year to prove to someone that you love them. Society has become too materialistic to understand this and it is highly frowned upon.
Vidal N. Wachuku, writer for the website therealtruth.org, states, “Today, the holiday continues as a time to promote manufactured love—filled with trite greeting cards and ubiquitous heart-shaped candies. Many people feel obligated by societal expectations to buy gifts and send Valentine cards to loved ones.” First of all, people should not be feeling obligated and pressured by society to buy sappy Hallmark cards and Godiva chocolates. Second of all, the actual meaning of this “holiday” has been completely altered. Society has been sucked into this very mandated and forced celebration and young children often grow up with a wrong understanding of love and believe that you can only show it through things such as gifts, expensive dinners, and hotel suites.
In fact, many people of this “modern age” have understood a false concept of love. This is not a surprise considering that this idea altered idea of ‘love’ is shown in modern day literature, film, and music. On this day, many people confuse love with lust. By definition, lust means a very strong sexual desire whereas love means an intense feeling of deep affection. Please do not get those two mixed.
Love isn’t exactly something that is based off of time, nor should it be based off a day. Valentine’s Day should not be about ‘proving your love’ and just because a husband doesn’t buy his wife an elaborate gift does not mean that he doesn’t love her.
I love surprises and small gestures but Valentine’s Day is just a holiday materialized by society in order for companies to make revenue. You should show people you love them everyday, not just once on a day designed for it.