Should Valentine's Day be canceled?

It should be cancelled for plenty of other reasons – it’s a stupid holiday which has been commercialized beyond all need.

But ‘it’s a day for disappointment’ is not a good reason. She’s a snowflake.

The card companies and flower stores would never allow it. It’s one of their busiest days of the year.

Valentine’s Day is a day of romance, and we all need romance in our lives. Even if one is not partnered, it is a great day for expressing love and romance to our closest friends.

Those who feel a bit “out of the game” can turn themselves around and make someone else’s life a bit brighter and themselves get some joy out of it.

Valentine’s Day is also good for candy makers, stores and especially restaurants. It’s good for the economy.

Valentine’s Day is also my wedding anniversary. If it was canceled then I could finally take my wife out on our anniversary without fighting the crowds. HA!

It’s not for couples to begin with.
Hence I don’t feel guilt when I don’t buy or do anything, that day.

It is to show someone that you secretly admire or adore, your love or appreciation.

Unfortunately it’s been taken by the market.

A Pagan holiday where they whipped women with strips of bloody hides to make them fertile? Yeah, nothing I care about celebrating.

^^^^^ Pagan? It is the feast day of a Christian martyr!

Sorry – trying to post the Wikipedia link with thei history.

Typo in that link?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentine's_Day – - will work !

@RocketGuy Not sure.

@Tropical_Willie Thanks! The history is in there – @zenvelo was right.

@KNOWITALL Do you have a source or link?

Actually, pagan so @KNOWITALL is right:

Cut and pasted from Wiki:

” In Ancient Rome, Lupercalia was observed February 13–15 on behalf of Pan & Juno, pagan gods of love, marriage & fertility. It was a rite connected to purification and health, and had only slight connection to fertility (as a part of health) and none to love. The celebration of Saint Valentine is not known to have had any romantic connotations until Chaucer’s poetry about “Valentine’s Day” in the 14th century, some seven hundred years after celebration of Lupercalia is believed to have ceased.[29] Lupercalia was a festival local to the city of Rome. The more general Festival of Juno Februa, meaning “Juno the purifier” or “the chaste Juno”, was celebrated on February 13–14. Although the Pope Gelasius I (492–496) article in the Catholic Encyclopedia says that he abolished Lupercalia, Sioux City UMC Professor Bruce Forbes wrote that “no evidence” has been demonstrated to link St. Valentine’s Day and the rites of the ancient Roman purification festival of Lupercalia, despite claims by many authors to the contrary.”

@jca2 SVD is not related to Lupercalia, as noted in your citation:

“no evidence” has been demonstrated to link St. Valentine’s Day and the rites of the ancient Roman purification festival of Lupercalia

A lot of Christian holiday dates were chosen because of their coincidence with [former] pagan festivals and holidays, in an attempt at conversion. It doesn’t mean the current holiday is a direct successor of that pagan celebration though. And in some cases it may simply be, well, a coincidence.

I have nothing against Valentine’s Day. If you want to make it “lonely hears day” or something, that’s fine by me too.

Gee, I just like that cool special candy goes on sale in the 15th.

@chyna Here you go. I always have links, just not always handy. :)

https://www.indiatoday.in/education-today/gk-current-affairs/story/history-of-valentines-day-pagan-origins-and-lupercalia-html-1456156-2019-02-14

^Good article. Thanks.

I would be all for cancelling V.D., but my wife would oppose.
She likes being given gifts, but she loves being seen as treasured and beloved.

Not really. Kiddos in school enjoy it, so what’s wrong with a little harmless fluff? Growing up in this shitty world is bad enough. Let kids have fun while they can. Reason enough to let it stand in my opinion.

I think it is a celebration of LOVE and we all need more of that! We don’t need to look into the ancient past or the monetarily assets. Can’t we just have a day for LOVE and nothing else? A little harmless fun and silly togetherness. :)

Well said @RayaHope. Harmless little “holiday”.

I’ve never been a fan of the holiday. I wouldn’t go so far to say we have to get rid of it, because we can always just ignore it.

I usually just hide paper hearts all over the place for my husband. His car, in the fridge, in his medicine cabinet, work folders, just about anywhere.

I have no inclination to go out to some sort of special dinner or whatever people do.

.

@JLeslie Seems you still have fun with it in your own way.

@Nomore_Tantrums Yeah, I don’t want to spend a fortune just because Hallmark decided it was a holiday. I won’t pay double at restaurants, and I have never been much of a gift person.

I canceled it for myself a few decades ago.

I don’t really think it’s necessary to cancel things just because you personally don’t enjoy them.

A good question to consider is whether it’s actually harmful.

As adults, we don’t celebrate Valentines Day. But I think it’s a sweet holiday for the little kids.

And have also seen people co-opt it to celebrate friendships. I think that’s more powerful than just boycotting.

” I don’t really think it’s necessary to cancel things just because you personally don’t enjoy them.”
Absolutely this, @raum. If it doesn’t celebrate the harming or oppression of others, then definitely a live-and-let-live approach is best.

Speaking of kids in school, in the 3rd grade my sister got a
Valentine’s day card from her classmate and he had written “You are a bitch,” in it.
Made her feel really bad.

@Dutchess_III Awww…that’s awful, Dutch. I’m so sorry your sister had to deal with that little shithead.

No. Ignore it if you want to.

I think the word “cancel” should be canceled in the name of protesting and reacting against anything that we don’t like and disagree with.

And no, Valentine’s Day, as long as perceived by most as remembrance that romance still exist in this world should not extricated from our collective memory and tradition.

Celebrating at school gave me stress: Who to give to? Who not to forget? What to say? What the implications were (if any)?

I agree with @RocketGuy as I was required to give a Valentine card to EVERY child in my class to make sure nobody’s feeling got hurt. I usually wrote pretty much the same thing on every card. One little boy took it very personal & he stalked me for years because he thought I loved him. We were in the 2nd grade. After that kid, I became EXTREMELY careful what I wrote on any card!!! On his card, I’d choose the most generic card in the pack, I stopped adding a note & I stopped signing my name opting to just use my first initial so he couldn’t prove that it came from me. After my experience with him, I got to where I’d have anxiety attacks just before Valentine’s Day every year.

My husband & I NEVER celebrated Valentine’s Day on the day. We’d buy special little gifts for each other all throughout the year. For me, that was a LOT more special than buying a gift when expected to buy it!!! As I’d be heading off to work in the morning, he’d hand me a special lunch that he had made for me & when I ate it, I’d find a special little note telling me how much he loved me & what I meant to him & how he couldn’t wait until I would get home that evening. There was NO store bought Valentine card that could even touch his note!!! We didn’t need a pre chosen day out of the year to express our love for each other. As a matter of fact, he had been dead for just over a year when I found a card hidden in the very back of a cabinet. It was a Happy Birthday card with the sweetest note written on it & I found it on my birthday. So, even in death, he was still sending me special messages!!!

Due to everything that has happened in my life, I hold NO special affinity for Valentines Day!!! I still spontaneously buy little gifts for friends all throughout the year just to say “I’m thinking of you”.