Hallmark Holiday

Don't get me wrong, I love my wife! But today, February fourteen, has been taken just a little too far. For starters, how many of us actually know anything about the person whose name is associated with this day? If you said, "Yes, I do." Well, you are wrong! The Catholic church doesn't even know. They recognize AT LEAST three St. Valentines, all of whom were martyred. Here's a brief run down. One Valentine supposedly married young men and women after the Roman Government outlawed marriage of young men due to war. Another legend has Valentine getting killed for helping Christians escape Roman oppression (insert Monty Python's "I'm being repressed" voice here). A third and more popular legend has Valentine being thrown in prison, falling in love with the jailor's daughter and sending the first 'Valentine' before his death reading, "From Your Valentine".

All of these are great stories about supposedly great men, but do they necessitate a holiday? Well, this is where Western consumerism and capitalism come into play! Let's look at a list of what I and others around me deem 'Hallmark Holidays'. Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Cinco de Mayo (for my non-Spanish speaking friends, this translates to 5th de Mayo) and (here is where I may get in trouble) birthdays. My wife is saying right now something to the effect, "I don't want a lot, but shouldn't people be dancing and eating cake while celebrating the fact that I came to the Earth!" But I digress. Each of these days are nothing more than an excuse to a)party, b)charge inflated prices for average items, or c)give the opposite sex a reason to nag and compare items 'a' and 'b' to their friends significant other's accomplishments! Plain and simple, it is a way for business to gorge the consumer strategically throughout the year.

I don't know how many people today asked me, "What are you getting/doing with Tara for Valentine's Day?" That is the problem right there! I shouldn't have to get/do anything. I replied, "Everyday is Valentine's day in our household." As I said, I love Tara, and I like to think that I do special things for her throughout the year. I surprise her with flowers, take her out to dinner, buy her special things, and even clean up without her asking (given I don't do this one as much as she probably wishes). But the point is, I don't wait for one day a year to do these things. I understand that some in our country need this day as an excuse to exercise niceness, and that is sad. But for society and big business to 'force' consumers to pay exorbitant prices for common items today is ludicrous!

Here is my best Valentine's Day story. When I was in college many years ago, my friends and I were lamenting this very fact that I'm blogging about. We were frustrated that our poor college friends were paying $60+ for roses for their significant others, when those same roses were around $20 the week earlier. Anyway, we decided to combat this the best way we knew how: To let our fingers do the walkin'! At approximately 11 p.m. we took our Yellow pages and our friend's truck around the city to the local flower shops. What many don't realize is that flower shops bring in literally tons of roses and they fill every crevice of their shop for the 14th. That evening, they have to make room for their normal business of selling all types of flowers, so they throw those $60.00 rose bouquets away in the dumpsters. Now, it still may be illegal, but we didn't hop any fences or go behind any doors, we simply went to the dumpsters that were in the parking lots, or alley ways. After four short hours, we came back to campus with, and I'm not exaggerating, a truck bed, level, full with roses.

Pink, Red, White, Fire and Ice, you name it we had it. We sorted out all the damaged ones, and were still able to give bunches of roses to our moms, sisters, female friends, teachers, staff members, just about everybody on campus! Everybody who saw or had flowers had huge smiles throughout the day. And the best part was it was February 15th! It wasn't Valentine's Day, it was just any day of the year.

The moral of this story is...make everyday Valentine's Day, or Michael's Day, or Charles Day, or 'insert your favorite patron saint here' day. The notion that we have to be trapped into overpaying for a holiday is ridiculous. By the way, when is Festivus?