All the Rage: Why is Valentine’s Day a Thing? 

Valentine’s Day is probably one of my least favorite holidays. I think the idea behind it is cute and fun, but it defeats the purpose of what love is all about. We shouldn’t have to wait for one day a year to show someone how much you care about him or her. 

I didn’t write this blog post to trash on Valentine’s Day or because I’m bitter or anything like that. I just think that Valentine’s Day shouldn’t be celebrated through materialism. The entire holiday feeds off of capitalism and people’s false sense of love. 

I believe people create the idea of love through these cheesy greeting cards and giant stuffed bears, but that is not how you know if someone loves you. 

I’m sure you’re asking yourself, “what is love?” and “how do I let someone know that I love him or her?” and to that I say… I don’t know. Love can be a very difficult thing to understand. It’s different for everyone based on their experiences and connections with other people.

Luckily, author Gary Chapman has made it a little bit easier to understand. Chapman wrote the book The Five Love Languages in 1992 to help people understand how they express their love and improve their relationships. 

  There are five different love languages; receiving gifts, quality time, words of affirmation, acts of service, and physical touch. This allows people to understand what they are looking for and what their loved ones would like in return. It determines whether a relationship will work out right from the beginning. 

Our journalism class decided to ask students to leave anonymous responses to what they think love is? It was a good way to get different perspectives on it and it showed a lot about the person’s character. Of course, there were some silly responses written, but others had a lot of meaning. Depending on their response, one could determine their love language. 

For example, one student wrote, “Love is a feeling and an action”. This person might express their love through acts of service. They would help out their loved ones with their busy schedules or just assist them in whatever they need to help make things a little easier for them. 

Another student wrote, “Love is a chemical discharge”. This person might take things very literally. They would most likely express their love through words of affirmation and express how they feel to someone just by listening to what their loved ones have to say and telling them “I love you”. 

I am not a professional love language reader, but it’s fun to try and figure out how one expresses love for others and vice versa. I believe it’s much better to express your love through these languages rather than giving your loved ones thoughtless valentines that you bought at a store. 

I’m sure you’re all thinking, “receiving gifts is a love language”. Yes, I know receiving gifts is a love language and I’m definitely not against giving or receiving gifts, but I would rather give away something that I took the time to make and create. It shows how much thought and care you put into it. It lets the other person know how much you love them because you took some time out of your busy day to make it. 

Honestly, you guys can celebrate Valentine’s Day however you want, but please remember to let your friends, family, boyfriends, girlfriends, whoever it is that you love, know that you love them more than one time out of the whole year. They deserve more than that and so do you.