Op-Ed: Valentine's Day

By: Charlee Yousef

Whether you are one who romanticizes or one who despises Valentine's day, every year on February 14th is a holiday that is dedicated to expressing your love for those you care about in your life. However, in reality, the majority overlook its true meaning and because of this, many tend to dislike valentines day because they don't quite have that “special someone” that they get to spend it with.

Consequently, this leaves people with the question of whether Valentine's day is even a holiday worth celebrating. According to D. Tighe, a Research expert covering shopping behavior, sports, and leisure retail, “Planned Valentine’s Day spending in the United States was expected to reach approximately 24 billion U.S. dollars in 2022. This is an increase of about two billion dollars from 2021” (https://www.statista.com/statistics/285028/us-valentine-s-day-sales/). In the weeks at the beginning of February leading up to the holiday, the valentines day market is targeted to get people to buy expensive chocolates, flowers, gifts, and meals to celebrate their “love”. Controversially, some people only see this as a money-making marketing holiday that our marketing Industry only uses to get our society to spend more money. From certain perspectives, the act of buying gifts on Valentine's day can be seen as a sweet act because you are showing your love and appreciation through gift-giving, however, this can also be seen as superficial and can possibly hurt your relationship by setting unrealistic expectations as to what you are supposed to get or receive for valentines day.

Furthering on the idea of whether this holiday is even necessary, the question of, if you truly love someone, why should there be one specific day in the year that you express this love, arises? Shouldn’t you be expressing your love and appreciation for them every day of the year? On the other hand, this could just be overthinking nonsense, and Valentines day could just be a cute little day that is simply meant for fun.

All in all, no matter your opinion on Valentine's day, it's not leaving anytime soon, so while we spend this holiday every year let's remember that Valentine's day is meant to show your love and appreciation for everybody in your life that you care about. Whether it's your family, friends, loved ones, and even your pets, those who truly matter to you are those you should be thinking about most.