Maybe it’s because I am single. Maybe it’s because I am jealous. Maybe I do actually have a valid point. It seems to me that Valentine’s Day has become ridiculous and over commercialised. Not only are we bombarded with mushy Clinton’s cards and teddies the size of a house, but even adverts are jumping on the band wagon…and I am talking about sofa adverts! SOFA ADVERTS?!
We then get restaurants who decide to bump up their prices to ridiculously unjustifiable amounts because it’s Valentine’s Day. Albums with the ‘world’s best loved power ballads’ are released because it’s Valentine’s Day. Every shop and business window is sprinkled with pink love hearts because it’s Valentine’s Day. For those of us who suffer from Bridget-Jones-syndrome, lying on the sofa with a bottle of wine whilst terribly singing All By Myself by Celine Dion, longingly staring at the phone hoping someone will at least call you; this is a difficult time.
You may say that one could easily rant and rave about the commercialisation of other occasions such as Christmas, Halloween, New Year, etc, etc. However, one major problem I have with Valentine’s Day is that only about half the population actually celebrate it whilst the rest of us are left to drown our sorrows. How is it a celebratory day when, probably, most of the population actually feel depressed about the whole situation, and when it’s inevitable that out of the smug married couples who celebrate it this year, one in three of them won’t do in about two years’ time? If you love someone that much, why not express that to them every day? Why have one day of the year where you spend fortunes on each other buying, quite frankly, crap for one other? That’s not special. An anniversary is justifiable; it’s unique to a couple, but not Valentine’s Day! Every couple, in Britain at least, will buy the same soppy rubbish and do the same soppy things. In fact, Valentine’s Day can cause arguments between shallow couples who ask why their other half has spent far less on ‘presents’ than the other. It’s all too materialistic for me!
Conclusively, Valentine’s Day is a waste of time, money and effort. It’s depressing for those who are single and quite frankly an inconvenience, like any other calendar event, and sometimes destructible for those who are in relationships. So on that positive note, I really don’t see the point. Do you?
